Kim Possible: Fear And Robots In Las Vegas
by Mad Dogg of Middleton
Summary: [COMPLETED 26 08 05!] It's time for Kim Possible and her lifepartner Ron Stoppable to take a vacation. Repercussions from Emotion Sickness collide with the return of the Bebe robots, and a revelation that will change everything!
1. Four Hours To Vegas

Kim Possible

Fear and Robots in Las Vegas

**Obligatory disclaimer: **Kim Possible and all related characters are still the intellectual property of the Disney Corporation, and we're not about to let them forget that in any particular hurry. Now, on with our story...

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**Prologue:**

Amongst the wreckage of the sophisticated production line, the hive-mind of the Bebe robot army still functioned. A hundred cold, analytical computer minds all working as one, fixated on the final subconscious desires of a vain and opinionated teenage girl. "Don't worry, Bonnie! Uh, Kim's doin' something. I think…" The hive mind had not paid any attention to this typical human male before, but it was Bonnie Rockwaller's final command before the link was severed. She glared at the freckle-faced young man and thought "Ugh! Why must this always happen to me? You should be stuck here instead of me, Stoppable." In an instant, the decision was made. The Bebes would find this Stoppable and serve him, whether he liked it or not.

**O'Hare International Airport, departure lounge:**

"Oh yeah, I like it!" The voice of Ronald Kevin Stoppable erupted from behind the mouthful of deep-fried tortilla, mashed pinto beans, ground beef and processed cheese product that had just passed his lips. Wiping his chin with a napkin, Ron turned to his lifelong best friend and ceremoniously presented it to her, like Salome being presented with the head of John the Baptist. Given the sort of things that passed for acceptable nutrition in Ron's mind and the expression on Kim Possible's face, a severed head would have been infinitely preferable to the unquantifiable mass under her nose.

"Come on, KP! Just one Jumbo Taquirito isn't going to kill anybody!" Ron protested while Kim rolled her eyes and groaned in frustration.

"Ron, it was on the news last night, remember? It happened in Go City… Three people were hospitalized with serious injuries and massive colonic haemorrhaging?" Kim tried not to think about it, but the Jumbo Taquirito was there, staring her right in the face and taunting her.

"That was Go City, Kim. Their Bueno Nacho is a shoddy operation, all flash and no substance." Agreeing with Ron, Rufus poked his whiskery little head from the recesses of his owner's sleeve and nodded vigorously, chattering "Uh-huh! No Naco." Before swiping the potentially deadly snack treat from Ron's hand and devouring the last bite. Taking their tickets in hand, Kim and Ron gathered their hand-luggage together from beneath their stools and made their way to the boarding gate. "Hi! Is the captain available at all? We'd really like to talk to him, and I'm sure he would like to talk to us about something." Kim coughed discreetly and looked the desk clerk in the eyes confidently.

"I'm sorry, Miss. Boarding time's not for another fifteen minutes yet, and the captain doesn't talk to passengers."

Glaring daggers at the snotty clerk, Kim narrowed her eyes and repeated her request with added emphasis. "Would you please inform the captain that **Kim Possible** would like to speak with him?" Presenting passports and boarding passes, Ron safely tucked Rufus back into his pants pocket while Kim engaged herself in a battle of wills with this terribly rude and ignorant clerk. "That's Kim Possible, international freelance agent. We helped get Captain Belsen and his plane down at JFK during those blizzards in New York. It was only three weeks ago…" Helpfully, Ron added, "And she was wearing this really nice suede jacket lined with fake fur too!" The clerk didn't even look at Ron, and certainly didn't seem interested in the totally amazing jacket that Kim had on that day. He was… Oh, the indignity! He was actually ignoring Ron! Luckily, Captain Belsen had just arrived at that very moment. His craggy middle-European features split into a wide grin at the sight of the two teenagers and he rushed to shake Kim's hand in gratitude. "I can not thank you and your funny little friend enough, Miss Possible. Thanks to you, the U.N. was saved from disaster!" Modestly, Kim batted her eyelashes at the desk-monkey and made sure he could hear her speaking. "Really, Sven, it was no big… That tribunal just couldn't re-schedule in time. It's just what we do…" With her sweetest smile still firmly in place, Kim flashed her boarding card at the disinterested desk clerk one last time before taking Ron's arm and sashaying past him to get on the plane.

"Rufus, don't go to sleep in the little paper sack this time, okay?" Ron patted his pocket and warned his little pal while Kim smiled dreamily and gazed out of the window. "Ron? Suddenly I'm afraid." She looked over at his freckled, smiling face and cheered up just a little as he tried to reassure her. "Well, me too. But we have Rufus with us…"

Ushered into first class to avoid any unpleasant incidents, Ron could barely believe his eyes. The carpet was so thick underneath his feet here in first class. Here in first class, he could comfortably sit in seat 3-E with no annoying European tourists pushing a seat back into his lap while his tray table was still folded down. He carefully pushed his hand luggage to the back of the overhead compartment, leaving Kim some space to stow her own things before sitting down in his seat and checking everything with a familiar sense of panic. "Ron, please. You're acting like a Jewish mother…" Kim chided him before she suddenly gasped and put her hand over her mouth until Ron pulled it away to tell her, "Don't apologize, Kim. You know, there's a reason why it's a stereotype and that reason IS my mom." She didn't know why, but Kim just giggled at this little joke. Like she'd never laughed at something Ron said before, or really even looked at his face. In a rare moment of self-conscious introspection, Kim bit her lip while Ron read her expression a little wrongly, perhaps on purpose… Still consumed with the excitement of first class, he held up a miniature bottle and peered at the label curiously. "Mimosa? Ooh! Says here that it's champagne, do you want some?" The playful slap on his hand was something new, but Ron soon steered his conversational train of thought back to an earlier exchange. "You remember Go City, right? And how they had super-heroes there…" Helping Rufus to put back the little safety leaflet after making sure he had thoroughly read and understood it, Kim nodded softly.

"You told me this one before. Super-heroes are impeding the natural human order by being better than us." Again, she rolled her eyes while Ron fidgeted with his seat-belt. "Well, they are. The Mexi-Mushroom Wrap is a slap in the face of every non-super powered individual on this planet. I will never forgive Team Go for their most heinous crime against peace and freedom." He didn't even look at Kim's expression, but somehow he just knew to add "Okay, second most heinous", until Kim sighed happily. Again, that sigh was something different. Kim was definitely changing, in Ron's estimation. She had never quite recovered from having her emotions toyed with, and her feelings for him being brought to the surface and displayed for all of Middleton to see.

Lost in their own private world with only each other for company, Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable barely noticed the flight attendants demonstrating how to operate the oxygen masks and life-jackets. Only a familiar voice, deep and rich with subtle tones of a Mediterranean upbringing, jolted both of them back to reality. "Bah! You call this a Mimosa? Dear lady, I demand that whoever spat in this shampoo bottle and decided to pass it off as a Mimosa should be brought to me immediately!" Senor Signor Senior (for it was he) had regained his composure by the time the attendant had moved down the aisle to explain how that was going to be very difficult. But Kim just kept her head down and watched the clouds streaming past while Ron and Rufus were reading the SkyMall catalogue and picking out gifts for family, friends and just a little something for themselves… "Monogrammed bathrobes don't come in pet sizes, Rufus. Kim, do you think they might?" As she was brought out of her little bout of reverie, Kim glanced at Rufus pointing to the white towel robes with a naked little paw. "What? Oh, Rufus wants a bathrobe. Aw, that would be so cute!" Tickling Rufus affectionately, Kim chuckled and watched the scene unfolding across the aisle from their window seats.

"But, father! I am enjoying my Mimosa, and besides, it is only complimentary." The swarthy youth beside Signor Sr. had become indignant at an unheard request from his father, the old man giving him a kindly, encouraging look. "Junior, I am asking you as your father to do as I say. Remember? The violent outburst of anger is a villainous trademark." Relenting, as if his heart wasn't truly in it, Junior eased his muscular bulk from the seat and proceeded to drink both complimentary bottles of barely-alcoholic champagne and orange juice. "Very good, my son. Now, like we practised with the butlers at home..." The young man's cheeks bulged ominously and he proceeded to spray his Mimosa all over the young flight attendant's face. Something inside of Ron just snapped, and he adopted a ridiculous-looking Kung-Fu stance as he leapt to his feet. "Kim, you just sit there with Rufus and find something nice for your mom and dad. I'll take care of this..." And, with that, the young sidekick sprang across the aisle to throw shadow-boxing punches in the Signor's general direction and try to goad them into a confrontation. Waved to one side by Signor Senior, Ron listened in awe as the villainous gentleman calmly talked him down. "Young man, if you do not mind? I believe we have made our point. And now, we wish to watch the in-flight movie..." Sometimes, Ron wondered if he and Kim were really the only moderately sane people in the world, and he sat back down to try and get the movie to work on the little plasma screen embedded in the bulkhead in front of himself and Kim. She had already started on her Mimosa, drinking in moderation and quite enjoying this opportunity to loosen up and catch some rare "Kim Time", and she would never refuse a good movie. "So, Ron. If you've finished handing out your brand of justice for one day, what's this afternoon's movie presentation?" Greeted with the sight of the Daredevil sequel/spin-off movie Elektra, Kim leaned forward and switched the screen off in mild annoyance. "Ugh! If I wanted to see that sort of thing..." Ron chimed in, "You'd have stayed at home", as he and Kim both inclined themselves closer to each other like a couple singing a duet. As their hands clasped together, Ron nervously looked deep into Kim's beautiful bottle-green eyes and smiled weakly. "Ron, what is it?" "Kim, uh, how can I put this? It's just that look you were giving me." Uncertain, Ron began to look down at his shoes and began to wonder if he should take them off. "I kinda liked it..." Maybe it was the Mimosa talking, but Kim just blurted it straight out. "Yeah? Well, I liked it too."

That would be a pretty heavy thing to lay on a guy about a quarter of the way into a flight to Las Vegas, but Ron seemed to take it with his usual good-natured cheerfulness. The only thing that any of them was worried about right now was the plane running out of pretzels, at least at the rate that Rufus kept eating them. "I really did say that to you just now, didn't I?" Reclining his seat back, Ron's attention was split between Kim and the overhead compartment, where a familiar warning beep was broadcasting. Panicked flight attendants raced to the overhead storage locker and began to search Kim and Ron's bags while they both snapped out of this second brief distraction.

"Hey, whoa... 'scuse me, but what do you think you're doin'?" Ron asked as the tall brunette pulled the Kim-municator from inside Kim's backpack. "Is this device safe to use during commercial flights, Miss Possible? You know, the rules of our society still apply to you, and that also means **no pets allowed**..." Before she could grab Rufus, Ron snatched his little buddy up first and held him safely away from the attendant's manicured fingers, explaining, "Rufus isn't a pet. His boarding card says he's our co-dependant..." The Kim-municator flashed into life and the pleasant, smiling face of Wade appeared in front of the crew. "Hi! Don't worry; these transmissions have absolutely no effect on any of your plane's systems. Could you please put Kim and Ron on now?" Handed back to Kim, the small PDA's screen changed to a map displaying their precise location as Wade explained. "The red dot is your plane, and the green dot beside it is somebody following you." Shuffling around and staring out of the window to his right, Ron groaned and began to worry until Wade told him to calm down. "It's all taken care of, Wade. Signor Senior and Junior are on this flight, they don't appear to be planning anything." Kim turned the screen toward the villains until Ron interjected. "What's that he's holding? My God, Senor Signor Senior is gonna destroy Las Vegas with..." Craning his neck to spy on Signor, Ron continued, "No. No, nothing to worry about. Just a portion of non-dairy creamer. Sorry." Allowing Wade to finish explaining, Ron pulled out his tray table and gestured between himself and Kim. "Uh, she'll have the low-carb option and I requested the kosher meal?" Rufus peered quizzically at the Kim-municator and turned on the movie screen to switch to the flight path for a comparison, Kim nodding appreciatively. "Thanks, Rufus. So, somebody's matching our exact course?"

"And speed", Wade commented. "On the ground, though? That has got to be one monster engine..." Lifting the lid off his bagel and proceeding to spread it with cream cheese, Ron gave the two screens a cursory glance. "Could be that mullet guy from Jersey? Driver's Ed or something, I think he was called..." Kim replied, "No, that was Motor Ed. And right now the only car parts he's making are license plates. Wade, are there any fuel emissions from whatever's on our tail?" Taking her mid-morning snack from the attendant, Kim opened the little block of cheese and passed it to Rufus happily. Sipping her bottled water, she was surprised to hear Wade reply "Nothing. All I'm picking up are weird high-frequency signals, just like..." Wade's eyes widened in shock as he looked at Kim, utterly horrified. She matched his look and Ron and Rufus just blinked and stared at one another for a second or two. "Like what? Kim? Hello..." Sneakily, Rufus moved to pick the little portion of grape jelly from Kim's tray but a soft tap with a plastic spoon caught him entirely unawares. "Ron, I was totally afraid something like this would happen..." Taking Rufus back to his side of the trays, Ron leaned over and checked out the green dot following their flight path, thinking out loud, "No fuel emission, huh? So, whoever it is, they're moving on foot. And what moves fast enough to follow a 747 heading west to Las Vegas, on foot?" Kim looked at him expectantly, picking at her bran muffin. Rufus squealed and started to tremble, chattering "Uh-oh! Bebes. Eep..." "It looks like we have a new Bebe hive to deal with, guys. Sorry to spoil your vacation", Wade sighed before ending the transmission and going back to his computers to plot the estimated flight plan of Kim and Ron's plane. Better to be safe than sorry, he told himself before picking up a phone and heading outside to sit on the front porch of his house.

**Middleton Medical Centre, Department of Neurosurgery.**

Andrea Possible laid her empty cup on the glass-topped surface of her desk, swallowing down the burning semi-solid pellet of molten lead that passed for vending-machine coffee and grimacing as it hit her hard. "Congratulations, Andie", she thought to herself, "That one didn't even touch the sides." Suddenly, her phone flashed into life and she snatched up the receiver to take the call. "Hi, honey! Slow day at work today?" Jonathan never called her at work unless something was really wrong. "Sweetheart, you didn't just call me out of the blue like this because you felt like it. Did you, Jonathan?" "Well, no. Of course not, I've just had a call here at the Institute from Kimberly's young friend Wade." That worst possible scenario never even touched down in Andrea's mind. "They're not in any danger, are they? Oh, but this is their first vacation without us..." Any other parent would have been scared of this thought alone, but both Kim and Ron could always be trusted. They really were the best kids a parent could ask for. "As it turns out, they do have something on their tail. He's not quite sure yet, but it could be robots..." "Those things that your so-called friend Drew designed and built?" The Possibles shared a sigh, reminded of their daughter's arch-foe. Jonathan knew that Lipsky, now known as Doctor Drakken, was currently at large, but posed no significant threat. "Now, what would you say to a trip across to Las Vegas yourself? Just to be sure..." Jonathan told himself he worried too much, but Kimberly was only just turning 18, facing the big wide world. "Jon, you know who she's with." Andrea laughed softly.


	2. Touchdown and Go

**McCarran International Airport, Las Vegas.**

As soon as the runway was sighted, Kim grabbed Ron's hand and made sure Rufus was secure in his favourite pocket of her pants, dashing to the closest emergency exit. Closing her fingers around the handle, she paused and glanced at Ron curiously to ask him what was wrong. "Kim, this is a passenger plane. They always land and people get out, remember?" Giggling faintly, Kim tossed her head and gave Ron a sheepish little smile. "Well, since we're up anyway, how about a few stretches? I've been feeling a little uncomfortable since Wade called." Suddenly serious again, Kim began to run through a pretty basic exercise routine. Following her lead, Ron reached into the large hip pocket of her pants to retrieve Rufus, who scampered up his owner's arm. "I get it, KP. You want to be ready in case we've got a huge army of robots waiting for us at the baggage carousel, that's cool..." Arching her back inward, the athletic young cheerleader nodded softly and frowned. "I have to be ready. You have to be ready, and the hand on my butt certainly isn't helping." Withdrawing his hand, Ron came to the realization that he hadn't found Rufus after all. There was only one likely course he could take now, a dry smile spreading across his freckle-strewn features slowly. "Kim, don't get excited..." Rolling her eyes again, Kim straightened up and returned to her seat with Ron. "Stoppable, a hand in my pants isn't quite enough to get me excited." She always felt better when Ron pulled out one of his famous, almost pitch-perfect Han Solo impersonations, Rufus clambering down Ron's sleeve and expecting to be petted. "Sorry, sweetheart. I don't have time for anything else", Ron continued with that same dry smile. Lightly tickling Rufus, Kim listened to his contented little murmurs and leaned over to plant a soft kiss against Ron's cheek. "You do have your moments. Not many of them, but you do have them." Adjusting his seat back to its full and upright position, Ron just found himself relaxing, patting Rufus lightly and offering him an important piece of travel advice. "Okay, hold your nose. Then keep your mouth shut and blow, little buddy. If that doesn't work I brought Jolly Ranchers."

The slow descent of the plane brought them down into the middle of a pleasant early Nevada afternoon, tyres screeching on contact with the runway and not a single Bebe in sight. However, Kim just knew that they were out there somewhere, planning their next move. She didn't know how many of them there were, or whether they still had the increased capacity to mass-produce themselves, so she made herself comfortable against Ron with a long, drawn-out sigh. All too suddenly, the plane jerked to a stop and the passengers began to panic in their seats; whining metal-against-metal drilling sounds outside. The terrified co-pilot had already bolted from the cockpit, her uniform streaked with blood from the deep gashes all over her body. Stumbling and falling to her knees at the sight of Kim and Ron, she reached out to grab onto their seats before a long metallic tentacle snaked out from the cockpit and lashed itself across her ankles. Already slipping her gloves on, Kim lunged for the bizarre tentacle as Ron recoiled in horror. Squeaking and diving between Ron's two favourite shirts, Rufus' tiny claws scraped against the thin fabric of his undershirt as both became consumed with irrational panic. The owner of the long metal tentacles revealed herself, a vision of unearthly beauty in polished chrome. The sleek efficiency of a machine designed entirely by other machines, Bebe strode down the aisle from the cockpit and turned her cold eyes toward the hated enemy... If she could, she would smile wickedly as the human girl's name flashed across her memory.

"Kim Possible. Threat level: minimal..." Arms folded across her chest, Kim raised an eyebrow before making a sardonic comment. "Really now? I bet you're crying on the inside though..." Not wasting her time in a battle of wits, this particular Bebe unit turned her attention toward Ron without even giving so much as a second glance in Kim's direction.

"Stoppable, Ronald Kevin. 1307 Buena Vista Parkway, Middleton, Illinois. You have been chosen by Bebe. Your compliance will be most appreciated." Staring blankly, Ron seemed to be in a state of shock until Kim noticed his lips moving. Leaning over to help him, she whispered, "That means agreeing to go with her."

"But, Kim... I don't want to, I just don't think I'm ready to start dating robots", Ron whined. Standing up from his seat, the most unlikely of saviours made his way over to confront Bebe, tapping her metal chest with the diamond tip of his walking cane. "Madam, perhaps you have heard of me? I am Senor Signor Senior, billionaire and super-villain. If not, no matter. The point is this; you cannot simply threaten your arch-foe by forcing your way on board her plane and brutalizing members of the staff... Such an act is not super-villainy, merely terrorism. I suggest you rethink your strategies..." In the confusion, Kim managed to get Ron to the closest emergency exit and punch the door open, leading the rest of their fellow First Class travellers to safety. As Signor's son grabbed his father by the lapels and fled, Ron grinned and remarked, "Thank you! Kim, should we send them a nice fruit basket or something?"

Racing through the corridors of the terminal, Kim had barely enough time to reply to her friend before two identical Bebes were stalking them at a nightmarishly slow pace. To Kim, it looked as if they were trying not to harm their targets, like they wanted both of them alive for something... "Ron, I've had an idea. We can lose them at the metal detectors, come on!" Struggling to get his shoes and pants off, Ron threw them haphazardly onto a plastic tray and shoved it through the X-ray machine while Rufus sat on his shoulder and hung onto his shirt collar for dear life.

"We're wasting time, they're coming right this way..." Taking charge, the lightly-armed security staff monitoring the metal detectors began to rise from their hard plastic chairs only to find the two Bebes bearing down on the young couple. The older security guard straightened his cap and fumbled for the stun gun at his belt, his jaw dropping as he saw the gleaming chrome figures. His partner launched himself at the lead Bebe, soon finding himself swatted to one side like nothing while Ron and Kim made their escape again. "Ron, it's you they want. Go on without me, take Rufus with you." Her look of sheer resolve melted into that famous "puppy-dog" pout as their fingers began to intertwine again, and Ron couldn't bear to look his oldest friend face-to-face. "You don't have to do this for me. Listen to me, you really don't!" He was close to tears, his knuckles almost worn through to the bone from their firm grasp on Kim's bare shoulders.

"Ron, don't look back. Take the Kim-municator and don't worry about me." Kim held Ron's chin in her left hand, lifting his soulful cocoa-brown eyes to meet her own. Fearing for each other's lives, the heroine and her sidekick embraced lovingly; lips meeting lips for the first time. But these lips belonged to people that had known one another for as long as either could remember, and Kim was the first to break off from the kiss in shock. "Ron, are we really doing this?" Vaguely listening to Kim, Ron opened his eyes slowly and just smiled. "Yeah, why?" The Bebes had finally found them, two more joining the original three and circling around the tender little scene with wicked intent gleaming in their burning red eyes. "I was just making sure. There's one last thing I have to say to you, Ron Stoppable..." As she smiled serenely, Ron began to whisper "I lo-" before a finger pressed to his lips silenced him. Bawling his little eyes out, Rufus climbed back up Ron's shirt to nuzzle his tiny whiskered face against Kim's cheek and get a little kiss of his own from the impossibly brave girl before she whispered back to Ron, "I know that, but I was going to tell you to zip your pants up properly..."

He couldn't really tell whether that was an instant or an entire lifetime ago, but Ron Stoppable listened to Kim's final instruction and followed it diligently. Cradling Rufus against his neck, he kept his eyes straight forward and head down, and then ran for his life through the Domestic Arrivals lounge. Behind him, he could only hear the movements of Kim's fists and feet as they scythed through the air in mortal combat with the deadly robotic drones. What if they were killing her? He had to go back, he told himself. "Rational Ron" took the podium inside of his head and addressed the crowd, most of whom were just variations on "Scared Ron", and he began to remind them of the promise that he and Kim shared. Everyone seemed to like it, nodding their heads and looking worried until "Hungry Ron" took the podium for himself and shouted, "There's a Cinna-Bon stand! Over to the right there, you can make it!" Outside of Ron's head, he and Rufus followed their noses while Kim was fighting off the Bebes with some help from most of the airport's security staff. As one, the five robots intoned, "Kim Possible. You must give Ron Stoppable to Bebe. Ron Stoppable will complete us. Ron Stoppable will make Bebe perfect..." Balling up her fists, Kim lashed out at this threat to her friend's health and well-being with a very uncharacteristic cry of pent-up rage. It had seen their emotional outpouring just moments before, and now the thing wanted to make her jealous. The thing wanted to sink its foul metal claws into her Ron, to steal him away from Kim. She would not let it touch him, and the sudden rush of adrenaline to her system carried the simple message to every nerve ending in her slim young body. Taking the Bebe completely by surprise as its attention seemed to be elsewhere, Kim launched herself up off the floor in a double-footed back-flip kick that caught the robot square on the chin. Knocked back by the impact, Bebe-01 found itself smashing into a row of slot machines that erupted in showers of coins and tokens.

"Well?" Kim stood with her hands on her hips, finding herself waiting for a witty retort from the Bebe as the other four closed in on her. "At least Shego can be funny", she remarked with a typical skyward roll of her eyes. The roar of a powerful engine cut through the eerie moment of silence like a power saw, Ron's voice straining to be heard over the sound. "KP, get on!" Riding on the back of a white four-wheeled ATV with their luggage lashed to the rack at the rear, Ron gunned the engine and glared at the five Bebes through narrow, heavy-lidded eyes. Sprinting for the ATV and clambering onto the seat, Kim's heart skipped a beat as she took in the sight of Ron Stoppable being firmly in control of a situation. She couldn't be prouder for him as he executed a near-perfect K turn and sped down the long corridor and out onto Tropicana Avenue. "Wow, I really am impressed! Ron, you're..." She paused to playfully dig him in the ribs and asked, "So how much of this was Wade's idea, anyway?" Shouting back at Kim, Ron pulled the ATV onto the world-renowned Las Vegas Strip and headed in the direction of the huge pyramid of black glass. "Wade's got some kind of jamming signal that they shouldn't be able to block! Rufus, what's on our tail?" Simply shaking his little head, Rufus blurted out "Nada!" and Kim confirmed it. Pulling into a parking space, Ron handed back the Kim-municator and cut the ATV's ignition. "My hero," Kim giggled, nuzzling her nose into the back of Ron's neck.

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Thanks to everybody for the reviews! I'd like to dedicate this particular chapter to Christy Carlson-Romano and Will Friedle for all their work, bothtogether in Kim Possible and separately. Let's hope they get the chance to team up again somewhere down the line.

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	3. Villains Always Get The Juice

**The Luxor hotel and casino, Las Vegas Strip.**

The beautiful pyramid of polished black glass stretched upward, looking magnificent even in the light of mid-afternoon. Clutching Ron's hand firmly, Kim Possible raced for the nearest door and only just stopped in front of it before it sprang open. Taking charge and ordering Rufus inside first to sweep for traps, she tried to explain the importance of such things to the little naked mole rat while he sat stubbornly in her palm. "Kim, we're not on a mission, remember? I know it feels like we've just been through one, but this is our vacation..." Calm and perfectly at ease with the concept of the mundane, Ron Stoppable took his faithful pet and sidekick back onto his shoulder and dug his hands deep into his pants pockets. Casually walking inside with something of a strut to his usual gait, the young man pointed out the distinct lack of hazards and traps inside the pyramid. There were no spikes that would suddenly jut out of the walls and surprise the unwary, no razor-sharp steel jaws that would snap shut around their necks. No poison darts, no fireballs, nothing...

"You're right, Ron. I still haven't adjusted to normal, real life yet." Together, they went to announce their arrival to the staff at the desk with all their bags in tow, and Rufus found himself being the subject of an awful lot of questions. Ron and Kim found themselves having to explain that the tiny creature was unusually intelligent, almost human in his own little way. Demonstrating his talents for the desk clerk, Rufus covered his left paw in some of the ink from her stamp pad and proceeded to write _"Hello, my name is Rufus."_ on a scrap of paper for her. Clearly impressed, the clerk was only too happy to grant him a special dispensation, provided he wore some form of identification. Chittering and squeaking in Kim's ear, Rufus explained that he would be okay with a wrist-band worn around his middle.

**Doctor Drakken's mobile lair, currently above Seattle.**

At long last, the signal he had waited for! For too long, the mad genius had been without his army of loyal and utterly perfect robot servants. For years, their presence in the world without their creator to guide them had taunted him. "Shego! The most amazing thing has just happened," he barked over the P.A system. Not wasting her opportunity to make fun of her employer, the pale girl laughed derisively before taking the microphone. "Ooh! Let me guess... You ordered five CDs for a dollar and they're all good ones?" While Drakken fumed with rage, Shego had already appeared from out of nowhere to sit herself down in typical nonchalant fashion on the edge of a desk.

"No, no, I can get this one. You got the tank in that HenchCo sweepstakes thing?" The doctor was already up and out of his seat, pacing back and forth as he launched into another of his long rambling tirades. "No, Shego. The tank is not ours..." She had already cut him off to make another comment at his expense, but the streams of data being constantly sent into the sensor banks of this armoured heli-carrier looked much more interesting to her in some way. "Doc, what's this? Somebody called Bebe, huh?" That whole ordeal with the emotion-controlling microchips was still fresh in both their memories, perfect ammunition for Shego to use in her playful little verbal sparring matches. And she was just loading up the big guns now... "Have you been seeing other underlings behind my back, Drewpie?" Shego purred in mock-accusatory tones, adding the doctor's childhood pet name for good measure. "My, isn't it hot in here all of a sudden, Shego? Would you like me to pop down and fetch you a cool, refreshing glass of C...?" Adjusting his collar, Drakken stepped back from his evil sidekick with a stupid grin plastered all over his face. Shego, her eyes narrowing to diamond-hard slits, advanced slowly on him in predatory fashion with a wicked grin.

"Cocoa-Moo? Is that what you were gonna say? That is precisely the dumbest friggin' word you have used, ever! Could you just get back on the subject and tell me who this Bebe is?" Sitting down and steepling his fingers in evil fashion, Drakken buttoned his collar back up before leaning forward to begin his story. "Very well. Prepare yourself, Shego, for a tale of... Where are you going? Come back here this instant!" Waving him off dismissively with a gloved hand, the girl was almost out of the control centre when she looked back over her shoulder and called out, "See, you can't tell a story without all that _**Masterpiece Theatre**_ crap, can you? Make it short and simple..." "Yes, alright. The Bebes, as I named them, were my personal army of robots. Of course, I had programmed them each to be utterly perfect, at which point they began to question exactly why they continued to follow my orders..." Holding her head up with one hand, Shego found herself becoming fascinated with the pattern of holes in the ceiling tiles as she mumbled "Oh yeah, and I'm pretty sure your Snowman Hank pyjamas had absolutely nothing to do with it either." "Shego, could we please not have any more unpleasantness over the laundry hamper incident?" As Drakken momentarily lost his train of thought again, Shego was doubled over in hysterics. "You built robots, and the robots dumped you? A-heh... Ha ha haa haa haa! Oh, this is perfect!"

And she was off, kicking her feet in the air and banging panels with her balled-up fists as she laughed, long and loud with youthful abandon... This could potentially keep Shego busy for days, and Drakken needed her for more important things. "Ah, Shego, if you don't mind... If I could just have your attention for a teensy, tiny moment?" Wiping her eyes with her uniform's black sleeve, Shego tossed her hair back and tried to compose herself. Inexplicably in mid-toss, Drakken let out a small yelp which compelled her to stop and let her hair all hang over her eyes. "Gah! Shego, pay attention when I'm speaking to you..." Parting the curtain of blackness flowing over her face, Shego rolled her eyes upward in an attempt to freak out the insecure self-proclaimed mad genius as she moaned "Seven days..." in a near-perfect death rattle. "No, I'm sorry. Just foolin' around with you, Dr. D. So, you got these robots, and then you lose them with your inadequacies and now what?" Rising and preparing himself for another round of evil ranting, Drakken punched the air with a finger as he began to outline his new scheme. "Now, Shego, I will take back my army of Bebe robots and force them to accept me as their master once more! Why are you looking at me like that?" Stopping in the middle of his flow, Drakken looked curiously at his finger as if there was something on the end of it. "And you're not prepared for someone like, oh, say... Kim Possible interfering," Shego asked in an entirely serious questioning tone. Still absorbed in the mysteries of his finger, Drakken vaguely mumbled something before repeating himself a little louder. "I said I'd almost completely forgotten about her. Where are they anyway, those two?" Finally throwing her arms up in the air, Shego stormed off grumbling to herself, leaving the Doctor to his own devices. "Oh yes, Kim Possible... Have your fun wherever you are for now. I am a patient man," he chuckled to himself before taking a swig from the glass of chocolate milk delivered to his side by a motorized claw arm on wheels before exclaiming "Mmm! That's good Cocoa-Moo!"

**Meanwhile, back in Las Vegas...**

The room was superb, exactly as Kim had booked it when she sat down with her father and made all the arrangements herself. It would be perfect if not for one tiny little thing... She had jokingly referred to Rufus as a "child" on the online booking form, a purely accidental moment of non-clarity during the excitement of Spring Break. In the rush to get safely inside before the Bebe hive could jam Wade's ultra-adaptive frequency, neither of them had bothered to check exactly what kind of room they had been given. Expecting Ron to be nervous, Kim tried her best to reassure him. "It'll be okay, Ron. I mean, look at it. With a bed this big, we couldn't possibly do anything in the middle of the night." Measuring the size of the double bed against his and Kim's own rough measurements, Ron merely nodded softly. "Y'know, if this is too awkward for you I'll sleep on the kid's bed and Rufus can just have a pillow. Besides, KP, don't you already plan to share your bed with someone you brought with you?" Lowering the spectrometer sunglasses that she was using to perform a quick sweep of the room, still partially in security-conscious mode, Kim gave Ron a questioning glance and replied, "Hm?" With a sly smile, Ron made his way to Kim's suitcase and plucked a small inanimate creature from within. The prize of Kim's personal Cuddle Buddy collection, Panda-Roo hung from between Ron's thumb and forefinger, its tiny black plastic eyes devoid of life or personality. Squealing like a little girl, Kim made a grab for the soft plush animal, thwarted only by Ron jerking his hand out of the way in equally playful high spirits. "Hand over the Cuddle Buddy and I promise nobody has to get hurt, Stoppable." Setting aside the spectrometer sunglasses, Kim lowered herself to a half-crouch and fixed Ron dead in her sights before backing up a few steps. "Kim, what you gonna do? What you gonna do, huh?" As Ron proceeded to make the little plush creature dance in the air in front of her, Kim dove for the child-size bed and snatched up Rufus with a faintly evil smile. Squeaking in protest, Rufus looked to his owner with pleading eyes.

"You throw me Panda-Roo, I throw you the mole rat," Kim laughed as Rufus' tiny paws scrabbled furiously in mid-air. Diving with Panda-Roo onto the comfortable and luxurious double bed, Ron really wasn't surprised to see Kim following him shortly after. Following the exchange of "hostages" both of the teenagers just looked into each other's eyes and barely let as much as a word pass between them. After nearly losing one another forever, both Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable silently agreed that they had some catching up to do. Bodies and hormones were already forming their alliance to take control of the host bodies, but it was Kim's brain that stopped the potential havoc from being wrought. "You know, what you were about to say back at the airport... Right after I kissed you and thought I'd never see you again?" More than a little afraid, Ron nodded a couple of times before rolling over to look at Rufus. Blinking beady little black eyes back at him, Rufus gave his owner a smile and raised both thumbs. As far as he was concerned, Kim and Ron were two of the best humans he'd ever met. Turning back to face Kim, shifting his position on the bed to make both of them more comfortable, Ron answered his best friend.

"I knew I would see you again, though. And I also kinda knew that you weren't just kissing me because we were about to die." Reassuring her, Ron drew Kim closer and draped an arm around her hips. "We kissed because I finally realized something, Ron. I've had real feelings for you since before the whole thing with the Moodulator. I don't know what made them stronger, whether it was artificial or not, but I think our friendship has blossomed." Deep inside him somewhere, Ron knew that was right. It was true and it was real. Only together could these two face the uncertain future, and they began to draw each other into another kiss as the sun began to set outside.

* * *

This chapter is dedicated to the work of John DiMaggio and Nicole Sullivan. We wouldn't have Shego or Drakken without them...

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	4. Childish Things

**

* * *

Previously on Kim Possible;**

At long last, the signal he had waited for! For too long, the mad genius had been without his army of loyal and utterly perfect robot servants. For years, their presence in the world without their creator to guide them had taunted him. "Shego! The most amazing thing has just happened," he barked over the P.A system. Not wasting her opportunity to make fun of her employer, the pale girl laughed derisively before taking the microphone. "Ooh! Let me guess... You ordered five CDs for a dollar and they're all good ones?"

"It'll be okay, Ron. I mean, look at it. With a bed this big, we couldn't possibly do anything in the middle of the night." Measuring the size of the double bed against his and Kim's own rough measurements, Ron merely nodded softly. "Y'know, if this is too awkward for you I'll sleep on the kid's bed and Rufus can just have a pillow. Besides, KP, don't you already plan to share your bed with someone you brought with you?"

"We kissed because I finally realized something, Ron. I've had real feelings for you since before the whole thing with the Moodulator. I don't know what made them stronger, whether it was artificial or not, but I think our friendship has blossomed." Deep inside him somewhere, Ron knew that was right. It was true and it was real. Only together could these two face the uncertain future, and they began to draw each other into another kiss as the sun began to set outside.

* * *

Kim pulled away from Ron's lips slowly and reluctantly, keeping him close as she rose from the comfortable double bed. Pulling the young man quickly to the floor, she signalled to Rufus and instructed him to take the Kim-municator and call for help. Perpetually confused, Ron lifted himself up from beside Kim for barely a second before the indistinct shadow that passed over their window paused... "Ron, would you get back down here," Kim hissed before pulling on the hem of his signature red jersey. The shadow outside seemed to grow fainter, slightly fuzzy around the edges. "See, Kim? Nothing to worry about, they haven't..." Suddenly, an all too familiar droning hum filled the room and two of the nightmarish fem-bot creatures slid into the exquisitely-furnished suite accompanied by a hail of flying glass shards. "Your attempts to confuse our sensors have ended in failure, Kim Possible. Bebe has adapted, Bebe can not be deterred from her mission." With the last of the broken glass now scattered about the floor and the smaller child-size bed, Kim gestured for Ron to grab his shoes from the side of their bed and stay behind her. With cold, impassive green eyes she surveyed the damage that these evil robots had managed to cause in their unorthodox entrance. Her heart fell as she saw the tiny creature on the bed, punctured by a single shard of razor-sharp glass... 

"What is it, KP? Did something happen to – " Cut off, Ron found himself caught in the full glare of Kim's "resolve face" and began to shrink away from her in the grip of overpowering terror. Facing the Bebes with tears welling up in her eyes again, Kim stalked toward the Bebe robot to her right with Ron's jersey still clutched in her bare hand. Still wearing the jersey, Ron tried his best to dig his heels into the floor and keep Kim out of harm's way, protesting loudly to no avail. She didn't listen, but she soon released him and issued a simple command. "Get out of here now."

"But, what about...?" Ron pointed vaguely in the direction of the bathroom door, still wide open. Clenching her fists and taking the Bebes on yet again, Kim had stopped listening to him. She only wanted to protect him from these things, and he loved that. Ron Stoppable would never have another friend quite like Kim Possible, and he couldn't bear to watch her fight another battle without him by her side, even if it meant the loss of his own life in the process. Standing proudly and raising a fist to the skies, Ron made a conscious attempt to reach inside of himself and drag out the secret power of the one thing he hated and feared most. After trying variations on the Power Rangers' morphing call, the Green Lantern oath, Captain Marvel and He-Man's own magic words, Stoppable ran into the bathroom and attempted to tug the solid metal towel rail from the wall to use as a makeshift weapon. Surprised and overjoyed to see his little naked mole rat buddy safe and alive, Ron shared a weary "business as usual" look with Wade on the tiny screen and sat with Rufus to work on a strategy to get around the Bebes' adaptability. "Rufus, man, I'm glad you're alright. But what was that on the bed?" Miming, Rufus held his fingers up at either side of his head to suggest long ears, and then began to hop around. "Panda-Roo gone," Rufus squeaked as Ron went to work following Wade's instructions.

**The Lipsky family residence; Lowerton, Illinois:**

His daughter was halfway across the country having the time of her life, Dr. Jonathan Possible kept reassuring himself on the trip down to check on an old "acquaintance". Why, then, did it feel like his poor little Kimmie-cub was in over her head? With a weary sigh, he climbed out of his wife's car and approached the unassuming two-bedroom bungalow to reach for the doorbell. Joining him in the hope of lending some moral support, Andrea giggled like a schoolgirl as she looked around. "Oh, I'm sorry, dear. But just look at this place, and look at us." Watching someone inside moving, Andrea forced a cheery grin and prepared herself for an entire afternoon in the company of a slightly senile yet well-meaning old lady. However, when the door opened, the Possibles found themselves staring into the cold, dark eyes of a mad genius...

"KIM POSSIBLE? Wait, have you cut your hair or...? Also, you seem slightly more mature than I remember," Dr. Drakken had gone from enraged to confused in about a quarter of a second, looking over Andrea one last time just to make sure. Turning, Drakken fled deep into the bowels of his mother's quaint little suburban home with a panicked squeal; he was just going to have to leave this to Shego. Marching down the stairs that led to the attic, the evil sidekick regarded the two new arrivals coolly as they both folded their arms and stood on the porch impatiently.

"I'm sorry, but haven't I seen the two of you somewhere before," Shego asked with a suspicious gleam in her dark emerald eyes; already noticing a distinct family resemblance. Wiping his feet, Jonathan extended a hand to her and introduced himself and his wife before explaining that they were the parents of the fiery-haired thorn in Drakken's side, Kimberly Anne Possible. From the utility closet, Drakken bellowed and shook a fist in the air, "What are you waiting for? Liquidate them, Shego!" Unfortunately, the girl was having none of this, and she gave Mr. and Mrs. Dr. Possible a smile that was already bordering on sweet as she stormed into the closet to listen to another one of her employer's rants.

"Shego? You're not liquidating... Something's up, isn't it? A-ha, I knew it," Drakken exclaimed while Shego just yawned and rolled her eyes at him. "Yes! I will use Kim Possible's own parents as the perfect bargaining chip to... They can hear every word through the closet door, can't they, Shego?" Without another word to Drakken, Shego opened the utility closet and was taken aside by Jonathan while Andrea rolled up her sleeves and stepped into the closet to have a few "words" of her own with Drakken. "Now then... Ah, it's Shego, isn't it? Yes, of course. I'm sorry we just barged in on you without calling first, but we're rather concerned about something." Always quicker on the uptake than Drakken, Shego merely listened and gave Dr. Possible a nod of acknowledgment. She'd only just learned about Drakken's history with the Bebe robots, and the end of that story always raised a laugh out of her, no matter how many times she would hear it. "Kimberly and Ronald are stuck in Las Vegas right now, and these robots of Drew's are hunting them down as we speak." Half-listening to the sounds of a vicious beat-down in progress in the utility closet, Shego let that sweet smile turn ever so slightly wicked as she commented, "Wow, so that's where little Kimmie's moves came from..." As Jonathan sighed, he prepared for a very long evening and found himself wishing he'd brought a newspaper.

**Meanwhile, back in Las Vegas:**

It had taken some serious improvisation on Wade's part, but he'd finally come up with the perfect solution to Kim and Ron's situation, after Ron had agreed to have his voice and likeness scanned into the Kim-municator's holographic projection software. The bathroom door swung open and the image of Ron stepped out, bawling and hysterical. "Kim, go tell Rufus that everything's gonna be alright! I'll deal with things here..." And then, with a seemingly superhuman burst of speed, the image raced toward the shattered window and dove forward with uncommon grace and agility. Fixed on their priority target's visual image, the Bebe drones didn't have time to scan "Ron" for anything irregular as they followed him all the way out into the bright lights of Vegas. Tumbling down the side of the massive pyramid as the hologram faded from sight, both Bebes reported back to their central command structure to inform the others of their failure, and also the clever holographic trick played on them by the humans. Already programming themselves to adapt and prepare the other Bebes for this subterfuge, neither unit bothered to adapt to the fact that they were now crumpled in a heap on the back of a large Sphinx sculpture. Already called to the scene of the break-in, hotel security and the local police force were as confused as the team working at the airport. Kim reached into her case and pulled out a loudhailer. Checking the batteries were fresh, she began to call down to the cops and security.

"Don't panic, everything is under control here. Just a minor robot-related sitch, we'd be more than happy to clean it up, folks!" Pulled aside by Ron, Kim blasted him in the face with a question before remembering to turn off the loudhailer and put it down; looking into those warm brown eyes as only a young lover could. Clearing his ears out first, Ron spoke as he moved to sit down on the edge of their bed. "Okay, first; you pack a loudhailer for a trip to Vegas?" Replying, Kim shot him a raised-eyebrow "what kind of girl doesn't?" glance before she laughed, "Secondly, right about now you're craving monster Nacos?" Linking arms with his friend-who-is-a-girl, no, his **girlfriend**; Ron made some space on his shoulder for Rufus as he remarked, "How well she knows me."

The clean-up operation went ahead as planned, Kim theorizing that analyzing the Bebe's brain could teach them something. Conferring with Wade while Ron sorted through the piles of dead metal, holding up all the undamaged circuits and chips that he found, Kim was beginning to grow suspicious. "Wade, the last time this sort of thing happened, Bonnie was in control of the hive. You remember?" She couldn't tear her eyes away from Ron, working away in the heap of junk spread all over the smooth granite floor; and Wade certainly never missed a thing, commenting, "Got it bad for each other, haven't you?" Not offended in the slightest by his remarks, Kim replied, "This trip's been very good for him, and, well... Anyway, let's get back to the business at hand here?"

"Would you like me to hook up to one of the robot's heads and try to access her core programs?" Wade queried as Ron turned the head over to Kim, the three of them looking for a likely port to jack the Kim-municator into. Polite to a fault, Kim nodded her head lightly as she spoke. "Please and thank-you!" Giving her a little smile once they were away from the crowds, Ron pulled at a tangle of wires spilling from the clean break in the Bebe robot's neck joint, plugging the most likely one in and leaning back against a convenient pillar.

"Kim, I don't get it. I know the robots were connected to Bonnie, but what does that have to do with me? Does she actually want me dead or something?" Normally, the mean-spirited barbs fired from Bonnie Rockwaller's infamous acid tongue were met with Ron's laughter, figuring it was just some kind of playful camaraderie on her part. Now, his brain telling him that it really was something serious, he reached for Kim's hand and just let her presence comfort him...

"Ron, if it were anybody else I would tell you that you're just being irrational. But, you know... Bonnie? I'd feel safer cheering alongside Shego!" That seemed to have the desired effect on Ron, his crestfallen look vanishing in the twinkle of an eye. His face split into a broad smile as he loosely wrapped his arms around Kim's shoulders, falling onto her in the grip of hysterical laughter. Joining him, Kim laughed heartily as she found herself imagining Shego jostling with Bonnie for the space at the top of a pyramid, her dreamy bottle-green eyes drawn into Ron's boyish and innocent charm. "Oh, imagine it, Ron... Bonnie and Shego. They'd end up damn-near killing each other, and God help me..." Pausing, Kim laid a hand over her heart before she spoke again. "I'd end up having to break it up before they did each other any permanent damage."

It had taken him some time to decrypt the instructions still being sent to the Bebe drone's brain, Wade forgetting that he'd installed the relevant software on the only computer in the "nerve centre" that wasn't wired up to the internet. Luckily for Kim and Ron, they'd spent the last couple of minutes cracking jokes at Bonnie's expense on their way to the food court level of the hotel. When Wade chimed in again, he laid it all down for them; the Bebe hive was fixated on connecting Ron to their neural network as per the request of their former Queen Bonnie, instantly causing Ron to recall a familiar Star Wars plotline.

"Uh-oh... Kim, do you remember the Thrawn trilogy? In particular, The Last Command?"

"Oh, please, Ron... Those new characters were so awful! Stupid Mara 'look at me, I can do anything!' Jade and her perfect red-gold hair, the way they teased the romance between her and Luke Skywalker all the time..." Sitting across from Kim as she picked out croutons from her salad and used them to soak up her dressing, Ron laughed out loud before interjecting.

"And the biggest villain was just some blue guy, like they couldn't come up with anything better?" Lightly kicking his shins under the table, Kim warned her partner not to steer their conversation into dangerously geeky territory, only a few squeaks of protest from Rufus. They were at a loss for something to talk about over this moment of light snackage, so they naturally tried to avoid the touchy subject of feelings until Ron blurted it out, surprisingly enough.

"I think we could make this work, you know? You, me, together..." He was even beginning to blush as he drew a heart around the initials K.P. & R.S. in his nacho cheese using the edge of a tortilla, Rufus grumbling and chattering quietly for some reason. Taken entirely by surprise, Kim briefly turned her attention to the tiny rodent and picked him up to let him whisper in her ear. Oddly enough, she found herself understanding every "word" that the naked mole rat jabbered, probably as a side-effect of being around Ron. Apparently, Rufus was feeling very sorry for Kim since she'd lost her beloved Panda-Roo, and he certainly wasn't shy about telling her. Stroking him and reaching under to tickle his belly, Kim reassured her little friend that finding something to cuddle up to in bed wasn't exactly going to be hard.

"Aw, that's cute. But, Kim, there's still the little matter of you and me. And you're talking about snuggling in b..." Both Rufus and Kim knew that Ron was much smarter than he pretended to be, or that he could be if only he applied himself properly. It didn't take him too long to figure this one out, that freckled face splitting into a puckish grin as his eyes narrowed slowly... Then the laugh followed, sounding reedy and nervous at first until it abruptly ended. The Luxor's own IMAX movie theatre was blown open, the façade crumbling away to reveal a lone Bebe drone, outfitted in a mockery of Kim's mission gear.

"Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me... It looked cute on my little cousin but this is ridiculous!" The thing also shared her likeness, Kim's keen intellect already speculating some kind of deeper meaning behind this not-exactly flattering imitation...

* * *

This chapter is dedicated to Mark Hamill. Surprisingly enough, Mark was never involved with Kim Possible in any way until this particular dedication, I just wanted to dedicate something to him. Please, when you review this chapter, take note of the fact that I am fully aware of the irony present in the digs at Timothy Zahn's Star Wars books. Otherwise, I would not have written them at all.

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	5. Jinx! You Owe Me A Yoda

Amid the rubble of the IMAX theatre, the thing stood and stared intently in Ron Stoppable's immediate vicinity. It was a cold, unfeeling machine, just a thing. He kept telling himself that's what it was, because the real deal was right there with him, looking about the entertainment complex for a suitable starting point for her attack. It was unnerving, certainly, to stare into the face of something that had designed itself to perfectly imitate you, and Kim worried for a second that it would actually be able to defeat her or even replace her… Ron cheered her on, evidently just thinking the same thing himself and trying to push it aside. With his customary zeal, the young man made a bolt for the now-abandoned "Yard of Margarita" stand and hopped behind the bar, Rufus chattering and pointing to the array of siphons and taps. "I got a better idea, little buddy. Besides, what good's frozen raspberry 'rita going to be against Mecha-Kim? Sit tight…" The overpriced novelty souvenir glasses had caught his eye before, and a swift sharp tap against the bar confirmed that they were made of tough enough reinforced plastic to be used for what Ron had in mind. While Kim traded punches and kicks with her Bebe doppelganger, she glanced back in her best friend's direction to fire off a short quip. "What are you doing back there? Looking for a lost salt-shaker?" Turning back just in time to block a knife-edge swing at her neck, Kim never saw what Ron had in his hands as he sprang up from behind the bar again. Sprinting to her side, Ron passed Kim the three-foot length of hollow blue plastic before gripping the base of his own makeshift weapon.

"Well, here's where the fun begins," he joked as Kim gave him a sly little smirk. She was more accustomed to bare-fist fighting, or fencing with words, but Kim could adapt. Unfortunately, so could their implacable foe, a series of sharp serrated plates emerging from the painted metallic structure of the Kim-bot and tearing its clothing to shreds. "Ron, I really hate to use an old cliché, but I suddenly have a very bad feeling…" Kim tried to voice her concerns, but Ron was lost in the moment. Rushing the Kim-bot and raising his green "sabre", he tried to attack her lightly-armoured head from his right. Allowing a very different side of his being to control his actions, Ron began to fight with almost instinctive skill until a concussive energy blast fired from the robot's palm caught him square in the chest. Seizing her opportunity, Kim pulled Ron back to lean against the bar and get his strength back, then dived straight into combat with a traditional cutting remark. "Didn't anybody tell you, honey? Kim Style only looks good on Kim. But I must say; it's nice of you to break out of the traditional Bebe mould for once…" Speaking in a mechanical mockery of Kim's own tone, the robotic creature taunted Kim right back. "Yes. We have a new mould. One that has been made specifically to fit you, Kim Possible." Taking up a second empty souvenir glass that Rufus nudged in her direction, Kim twirled them in her palms as she eased herself into an unorthodox Escrima stance. Weakly, Ron lifted his head to watch the fight until a sharp pain struck him just behind his right eye. Chittering frantically, Rufus scampered across to the nearest concession stand soda fountain to fill a cup with ice and drag it back over to his owner's side, even as Kim appeared to be gaining the upper hand over her evil replica with her lightning-quick baton-fighting attacks.

"First game of the season last year, I suggested to Bonnie that we try batons instead of pom-poms. But, hey, you already know she was born with a stick up her butt, that's why you like her so much…" Ron pressed a mass of ice wrapped in paper towels against his cut, his vision starting to blur around the edges as Kim stood casually, making the mistake of letting down her guard. In two quick thrusts, it was all over. The Mecha-Kim's fingers vibrated through Kim's clothing and flesh like an electric kitchen knife, slicing into her arm above the elbow and downward just slightly below her knee. His heart skipped about a thousand beats all at once and suddenly, that rarely-used confidence began to force surges of adrenaline through Ron's brain, and he dimly remembered watching his own hands picking up Kim's discarded weapons to drive back the twisted creation of mad science while it tried to break his spirit with that distorted perversion of Kim's voice. "A bold move, Ron Stoppable… We would have expected you to learn your lesson by now." With some real power behind his swings, Ron was beginning to enjoy himself in the middle of the fight and even unconsciously found himself replying, "Well, I am a slow learner" until the Mecha-Kim simply reached up and crushed one of the glasses in Ron's hand with a gleaming chrome claw and spat back a rejoinder in his face. "Yes. You most certainly are, Ron Stoppable." His face fell instantly, taking all that bravado with it in a gently-falling shower of blue shards. Glancing back to Rufus while he kept the Mecha-Kim at bay with his remaining weapon, Ron nodded as the little hairless creature shook his whiskered head and went back to tending to Kim's wounds. "Come on, little guy… You saw the m- ", Ron never finished his sentence, the Mecha-Kim tasering him into submission and intoning "Ron Stoppable acquired…"

The world around them had ceased to exist, both teen heroes lapsing into unconsciousness in the span of seconds and being lifted over the bare shoulders of the gleaming Mecha-Kim. Fear and uncertainty descended over the tiny figure of Rufus, ignored by the robot and left alone for the first time since his birth, and he began to stab randomly at buttons on the Kim-municator in his panicked state. For the most part, all he managed to do was turn on the in-built MP3 player and play a totally random selection of Kim's favourites, the Mecha-Kim already rushing back to the Bebe hive with her captives. Ever resourceful, Rufus soon managed to haul the comparatively heavy device up onto a clean table and switch on the main screen. Wade was already panicking, his forehead running with sweat as all manner of alarms were blaring in the nerve centre of his room, and the young man struggled to make himself heard over the noise.

"Rufus, what happened down there? I lost Ron's signal and now Kim's out too! Find something to write on, hurry!" Away the little mole rat went, screaming and racing around the casino floor with the ends of the wristband around his belly flailing behind him. Without looking where he was going, Rufus found himself charging straight into a cup left carelessly on the floor by the video poker machines and sending up an eruption of loose change. The poor old woman who scooped up the cup to deposit another quarter in her lucky machine's slot got the fright of her life when the tiny little whiskered head popped up from under the mountain of coinage, waving and exuberantly shouting "Hi!" in his usual manner. Showing off his band, Rufus scampered along to pick a pen up and clutch it between his powerful jaws as a crowd of curious onlookers gathered around him. Following the small rodent as best they could back to the food court, hotel staff and rubber-neckers alike trying to help him communicate to Wade exactly what went down. Surrounded by his computers, Wade mopped his brow and exhaled heavily while he ran through it one more time with Rufus.

"So, one of the robots looked almost exactly like Kim? That makes sense, actually. She's beaten them twice before, and proved that she's capable enough. So now they're trying to assimilate her capabilities into themselves…" Wade hesitated as Rufus squeaked and garbled a long stream of nonsense, jumping on the spot. "Literally? You don't mean… Well, let's not wait to find out."

At the Lipsky residence in Lowerton, Doctor Drakken had barely just survived a full hour in the supply closet with Andrea Possible, when her beeper sprang into life. Falling on her husband's mercy, the blue-skinned villain cowered on his knees with Shego looking on, raising a slender dark eyebrow in the older woman's direction while Drakken pleaded with his former room-mate. "I'll give you anything! When I have Canada, you… You can have any province! Just keep that woman away from me…" With barely a hair out of place, Andrea smoothed down a crease on Drakken's overcoat and let her husband see the message flashing across her pager. Noticing the sudden shift in the overall tone, Shego sat her employer down and pulled her gloves off to buff her immaculately polished black fingernails and insult Drakken some more. "You just don't know the meaning of the word shame, do you? You haven't just been whooped by Kim Possible, but by Kim Possible's mother! Once this gets around, nobody's gonna take you seriously as an evildoer." Snapping back at Shego, Drakken gesticulated wildly with his unusually small hands, off on another tirade again… "Shego, that's quite enough! Obviously, our guests have just received some very bad news, or from our point of view, some excellent news…" Taking all this in, Shego let her lips curl into a cruel smile, crueller still when she reminded Drakken, "Poor little Kimmie Possible, lying in a ditch somewhere between Reno and Vegas, and you can't take the credit for it…" Grumbling, the self-proclaimed "mad genius" hugged his knees and fell into a typically childish sulk, the Possibles turning back to their hosts to break the news to them.

"Kimberly and Ronald have fallen into the clutches of… Yes, Drew?" Interrupting Jonathan, Drakken had timidly raised a hand to speak, looking around furtively. "Er, yes. Who's this Ronald?" Andrea and her husband shared a look; Shego closed her eyes and began to massage her own temples, her speech patterns lapsing into Yiddish unexpectedly. "Oy vey… Ron Stoppable? Runs away and hides a lot?" Drakken looked blankly at Shego for a few seconds, then finally his blue lips split into a wide grin. "Ah hah!"

"Finally, he gets it," Shego muttered before Drakken cut her off again. "You're Jewish, Shego! I knew there was something about you…" Giving up, the pale and long-haired girl just frowned and shook her head slightly, letting Jonathan explain to them again. "Ronald and Kimberly have been incapacitated, and are now in the hands of the Bebe robots. The drones may be planning to cyber-genetically link to their brains and control them somehow…" This last sentence had the dubious honour of being the one to make Drakken perk up, his grin widening again as he rubbed those tiny little hands evilly. "Perfect! Not only will I regain control of my Bebes, but Kim Possible herself will be one of them!" Apparently, he had forgotten where he was, and the company that he was currently keeping… Forcing herself to smile sweetly, Andrea circled around to the back of Drakken's chair while Shego gave the woman a wicked look. "Drew, would you like another hour in the closet? No? Then please, shut up." Not exactly approving of his wife's violent streak, Jonathan settled into a high-backed leather armchair and reached for her hand, patting it in a reassuring manner while he talked things through with Shego again. Casually, he remarked that she shared an ethnic background with Ron Stoppable, and was greeted with a non-committal shrug. "So, probably not related, then?" he replied…

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Thanks to everybody for continuing to read this little tale as it develops. This particular chapter is dedicated to the hard-working tireless souls at http/groups. helping to keep the dream alive. Boo-yah!

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	6. In The Bellybutton Of The Beast

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**Disclaimer:** Characters from Reno 911 appear courtesy of Comedy Central. Slightly more adult language and situations, viewer discretion advised.  
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****Outskirts of Reno, Nevada.**

"Sorry, dispatch. See, I thought you actually said robots… What was that?" This was not gonna be a good one, not in the slightest damn degree, Officers Weigel and Garcia of the Sheriff's department thought between themselves during a rare moment of inactivity. People had been reporting robot sightings all over town, and Garcia bristled behind his mirrored sunglasses at the very thought of it. "Yeah, I heard you. Seventeen eyewitness accounts, all – What is it, Weigel?" She wasn't in the right frame of mind to deal with this either; apparently SOMEONE just had to take the last handful of cherry Twizzlers from her personal candy jar. And what's worse, Garcia had the sheer nerve to float them in his coffee! What kind of diseased mind thinks of stuff like that? He tried to apologize so many times, but Trudy just tuned him out. She was all about business now, waving her nightstick at the bizarre sight approaching their parked squad car; a bizarre sight indeed that appeared to be a naked girl, covered in silver paint and carrying two limp bodies

"Looks like this is our girl. You gonna get up and let me out? That dick Dangle keyed the driver's side when he claimed I ran over his friggin' bicycle last week." Ignoring Garcia's pleas, Weigel rolled her eyes lazily and reached over to push the door open for him, which could obviously still be done from the inside. Honestly, the man was like an overgrown child sometimes! The robot was caught in the headlights of the idling car, its sculpted lips curling into a feral snarl. As the red glow of its eyes intensified, seemingly concentrating on something, Garcia fumbled in the darkness for his gun just as Weigel fired off a shot of her own. The Mecha-Kim swung around, utterly indifferent to the bullet lodged in her chest, and sped off into the night again.

"Wow. You know what? Let's just not bother writing this one up", Garcia drawled before wiping powdered sugar from his moustache. "I feel like stopping by the 7-Eleven for some more of that coffee…" With a heavy sigh of resignation, Trudy Weigel suddenly took a swing at her partner's right hip with her nightstick, snapping at him. "You owe me for those Twizzlers, asshole."

**The Bebe Hive situated beneath Alkali Lake.**

The two human captives were made ready for processing; both Kim and Ron's superficial wounds tended to by the silent mannequin-like older model Bebe drones. Lying naked on cold steel frames, they were vaguely aware of the procedures, but only Ron managed to regain his consciousness on the operating table. Deep chocolate-brown eyes drifted open slowly, squinting under the glare of bright fluorescent lighting, and Ron found himself simply too weak to move anything larger than his head while the distant sounds of the hive reverberated all around the teenaged couple. Kim's prone body was being subjected to a routine physical examination by one of the newer model drones, another Mecha-Kim that pulled sections of its polished metal "skin" away to experimentally press them against Kim's bare flesh. The disjointed thoughts swirled in his head, pulling themselves together slowly as the paranoia began to set in. The Bebes weren't just making themselves like Kim because she was fully capable of kicking any amount of butt; they were trying to conform to his personal standards!

He feebly croaked "Sick and wrong…" as one of the Mecha-Kim drones lifted his lower body to turn him over onto one side. Letting out a totally involuntary chuckle as smooth, rounded fingers of clinically cold metal traced the shape of his buttocks, Ron suddenly froze as those fingers became sharp, biting into his flesh and exploring. Cold sweat poured down his face in rivulets, his fevered mind racing as the robot's fingers withdrew from the incision, a tiny microchip tracking device held between them. She wasn't putting it into him; Ron's brain informed him as he watched the whole horrible incident reflected in the mirrored walls. Somebody had put the chip in him, probably just to keep tabs on him, and now they wouldn't be able to… Wondering who it could have been, Ron began to close his eyes dreamily, a rhythmic pounding noise like the beating of artificial hearts starting to send him back off to sleep. Kim had vanished from her "bed" a short while ago, and he hadn't even noticed. Had she escaped and fled from the hive to get help? Did the Bebes succeed in transforming her into one of them? Or, did they…? No. He mustn't think like that, the "Rational Ron" voice in his head told him. Slipping into a subconscious conversation with his own brain's left hemisphere, Stoppable pushed away all the outside distractions while the Bebe robots did their thing. Not worried in the slightest about the risks to his own mental well-being, Ron let his rational, lateral-thinking side talk him into the most controversial decision of his life. He was going to take control of the Bebe hive mind, still too close to Bonnie Rockwaller for comfort, and try to steer it on the path to righteousness. It went without saying that he had the perfect role model in mind…

Kim Possible was safe, alive and well for the time being, her injuries patched up with some kind of weird mercurial substance. She had made no attempt to peel it away from her body despite the ever-present rational voice in her own mind, but as her gaze travelled down her own modestly-clothed form, Kim saw the crawling lines of blue light on her skin. Then, she was joined by two more of "herself", the drones extending those needle-tipped fingers toward the patches of liquid chrome stuck over the superficial flesh wounds. Almost sighing, the Mecha-Kim that held tightly to her arm looked down at the human on the operating table and appeared to smile in a gentle, apologetic manner as her eyes glowed a soft shade of green. Bebes never did that! But this, this wasn't a Bebe, it was her friend. It was her, and Kim dreamily smiled back at the "reflection" as it began to feed some kind of clear liquid into her veins… "Wake up, Possible. Don't you see what they're doing to you?" Oh great, now her own left hemisphere was starting to get lippy with her, and she began to tell it off right back.

"Look, I know what I'm doing. Cut it out, everything's under control…"

"No, the only thing that's under control is you. Under their control." How could that be? Kim was 100 sure she was keeping those monsters out of her head, they weren't going to corrupt her with their insidious emotionless logic. Kimberly Anne Possible was above all that, she shouted at the rational voice.

"Fine. Suit yourself, Kim," the voice replied. "Welcome to Stockholm. Population: you."

And with that, the voice of her rational side shut itself up, content to sit back and quietly analyze everything while dispensing occasional advice. Outside her head now, Kim saw the gleaming metal of her captor's left arm as she peered out from behind the oppressive haze of cold unfeeling machine logic that she could feel pressing against her, squeezing her mind and attempting to choke her soul. Should it really be bending that way, she thought to herself? It doesn't seem to be hurting her, but the rational voice taunted her, whispering "Stockholm…" So, Kim lifted her own left arm out of pure instinct, staring in shock as the silvery surface of that slender robotic arm moved under the power of her own muscles. It was… She was… It was her, and she was it. "Ron," she whimpered meekly in an attempt to distance herself from the cold analytical logic of the Bebe hive mind, desperate for even the briefest tiny little moment of comfortable absurdity as she stared in rapt horror at the asymmetrical patchwork of metal and flesh her body had become. Ron would understand, it was ingrained in his nature and Kim knew him all too well, her eyes drifting half-closed in that dreamy smile once more. He wouldn't disappoint her, and her own subconscious desire was soon fulfilled as the ceiling began to bulge downward rather ominously. Screaming as his escape plan went horribly awry, Ron Stoppable found himself dangling upside-down and struggling to cover his private areas as his thin hospital gown surrendered to gravity's embrace.

"We really gotta stop meetin' like this, huh?" Same old Ron, Kim chuckled to herself as she looked up at him with a coquettish smile. Joining her, the two drones responsible for the radical change in her appearance (and nothing else, she repeatedly kept telling her left hemisphere) also burst into peals of good-natured laughter as they pulled Ron free of the cable that tangled itself around his ankles. Interested, Kim turned her gaze onto the robots and squinted, trying to get rid of the fuzzy shapes and little squiggly lines that lined her field of vision. Shocked back into absolute lucidity by the realization of what they'd done to her, Kim opened her mouth to whimper again. She could actually read words in the stream of squiggly horizontal lines flashing under her eyes! She was seeing in Bebe-vision! The next shock hit her like an 18-wheeler as her voice began to intone every word.

"Ron Stoppable. Status: optimal", she droned in mechanical monotone before clapping both hands over her mouth like she was trying to not be sick. Inwardly, Kim Possible told her rational mind with an exasperated sigh, "The weather's nice in Stockholm. Wish you were here…" His brows knitted with the effort of concentration, Ron mouthed the word back at her even though she was totally sure she never said anything out loud.

"Stockholm? You mean they've brought us all the way to England?" Distressed, Ron reached out to take Kim's hands in his own, and she found it strange that he didn't call attention to the fact that she was clearly Bebe-fied, even as she corrected him.

"Ron, Stockholm is in Sweden. And we're still in America, okay?" He nodded slowly, an eerily calm smile on his face as Kim noticed the slight smell of anaesthetic drugs about his skin, which reminded her of the "hospital" smell that her mother disliked so much… Strangely, he just gave her a prize-winning smile and agreed with her, causing her to finally ask him, "Ron? Can you hear or see things that I'm thinking to myself?" As she caught a glimpse of her face in the mirrored walls, Kim bit her lip and gave the reflection a worried second glance while Ron considered her question. Most of the left side of her head was covered with a Bebe face-plate, sculpted to be a perfect likeness of her own true self, which she kind of expected at this point anyway… Concerned for their mutual physical and emotional state, Ron lightly patted the back of Kim's still-human hand and gave his response. "I thought we knew each other for so long that we could just do that anyway," he whispered to her.

**Lipsky family residence, Lowerton IL.**

Shego had been particularly evasive since the Possibles had mentioned Ron Stoppable, and she had actually stormed out to sit on the back porch shortly after the mention of his name. Taking this as a bad sign, Andrea thought it best to let the young-looking woman go. Drakken had often seen her get this way, particularly after Kim Possible and that forgettable sidekick of hers (what was that name again?) foiled one of his brilliant schemes to dominate the world, and he took it upon himself to spy on her very closely. She would always reach into that holster wrapped around her left leg and produce a cell-phone, but since Shego suspected she was being watched in her employer's lair, she would always send these mysterious communications in the form of text-messages that Drakken couldn't trace, let alone figure out how to send on his own. All too suddenly inside the small bungalow, Andrea's own phone rang. Casually flipping it open and checking the screen for caller ID, Mrs. Dr. Possible winked at her husband before asking, "What's the sitch?" just to see Dr. Drakken jump and look around uneasily with a bottle of chocolate syrup in his hand.

"Maureen, Tom, it's so good to hear from you! Well, we didn't want to worry you, but Kim and Ron have run into a little problem over in Las Vegas, yes…" She paused to take a sip from the cup of hot fresh coffee her husband had placed next to her on the end table, watching Shego return to her seat and put her feet up on the coffee table, completely ignoring Drakken's attempt at scolding her as she sniffled and blinked to clear her eyes.

"Shego, mother doesn't like it when she finds scuff marks on the furniture, remember?"

"Oh, go and scuff yourself", the girl spat back in her typical sarcastic tone, about ready to take Drakken into the supply closet for a beating herself. Meanwhile, Andrea continued relaying the news to Tom and Maureen, the Stoppables.

"Yes, that's right… Kim's friend Wade, who maintains her internet site, called us first to tell us. When did he call you?" Putting down the phone, Mrs. Dr. Possible's eyes grew wide with fear as Shego subtly perked up one pencil-thin brow, listening in.

"Well, honey, what is it? Did Wade get through to them?" As Drakken sat down to enjoy his favourite beverage, Shego rolled her eyes at him, warning him not to start any of that "Cocoa-Moo" garbage again, keeping one ear open…

"Jon, they don't know who Wade is. Maureen says they've seen something on the TV," Andrea stammered as she hung up.

**The Stoppable house, 1307 Buena Vista Parkway, Middleton IL.**

"Tom, that felt so awful," Maureen confessed to her husband as he took his glasses off to clean them, only half-listening. "The Possibles are our friends; we shouldn't have to lie to them like that." Every other mission Ronald went away on with his friend Kim, they would always be told he was coming home in one piece.

"She's such a good girl, Maureen. Always looking out for Ronald like she does…" Taking his wife's phone, Tom Stoppable sighed heavily as the stored voice message played back one more time, the girl on the other end close to tears even before she began…

"Mom, Dad, it's me. Sorry I haven't called in so long, but Ron's in big trouble with Kimmie. Something's taken them both from the hotel, and we don't know where it's gone with them. Don't tell anyone I'm calling you again, okay? Love you…"

**Alkali Lake complex, Nevada.**

The inhuman green glow of her left eye was unnerving to watch, but Ron always kept his head high and a smile on his face, even as Kim's own expression tried its best not to overtly become a worried frown in front of him. So, he explained to her precisely what he had allowed the Bebes to do, cooperating with them in exchange for Kim's own relative safety.

"I knew they wanted me, and I couldn't let anything happen to you, KP," he started to whisper to her as the soft light from her new eye bathed his features in emerald radiance. Softly singing a few notes experimentally to make sure her voice hadn't been altered by the Bebes, Kim replied with a weak half-smile.

"Ron, it's alright. The Bebes belong to you. We…" Her face frozen, Kim reached for Ron's jersey and unfolded it, passing it to him rather than continue speaking in case she made another mistake like that.

"Yes, Kim? You and me, that would be "we", wouldn't it?" Ron gestured simply, prompting Kim to spin it out after he saved the conversation from heading down a wrong alley, tugging his red hockey jersey over the thin black long-sleeve T-shirt.

"Sure, Ron, I was going to say that we can teach these girls the right way to do things. Y'know? You and me together…" She couldn't tell him how glad she was to just be sharing his company on this balmy Nevada night in the middle of the desert, and now they had their clothes brought back to them from the Luxor, she really felt like a human being again.

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The best plot twists, I always find, are the ones where you, the audience, get to feel like you're in on it from the very beginning, with those characters that are part of the twist. But I'm not going to blow the twist straight away, I'm going to let this one sit in the background as part of the overall arc I intend to establish.

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**Author's notes:** References to "Stockholm" are indeed referring to the psychological condition that sometimes causes kidnap victims to side with their abductors. Also, we're six chapters in and Ron's only just been upside-down and naked once. I'm pacing myself.

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	7. Naked Mall Rats

**Food court level of the Fashion Show Mall, Las Vegas.**

It was still only the second day of their vacation, and already Kim and Ron had been forced through one incredible situation after another, culminating in something that Kim actually found herself adjusting to very well… She wasn't changing after all! According to Ron, he was trying to change the Bebes instead, and as she sipped her hot coffee, she only had to think a question at him to get his attention. "So, since when did you become such an expert on conformity, Mr Never-Be-Normal?" Taken entirely by surprise when the strange cyber-telepathy buzzed in his brain, Ron managed to spill the contents of half a breakfast Naco in his lap. Or at least, he saw the mass of cheesy scrambled eggs, peppers and chopped steak fall somewhere. From beneath the table, a tiny belch solved that mystery right away…

"Kim," he sighed, clearly more comfortable with plain ol' primitive verbal communication, "This isn't conformity…" Pausing to take another bite of his breakfast while Kim gave him that coy little half-smile, he was about to finish his sentence when he noticed something. She wasn't half-Bebe any more! Did they actually respect his wishes and undo the physical alterations they had performed? Deciding to save the worrying until much later, he swallowed down that bite of his first Naco of the day to add the punch line to his statement with a grin. "It's not conformity, this is Ron-formity."

"Cute. Were you working on that line all night?" Kim asked as she idly drummed her fingers on the tabletop. The only thing that looked out of place was the unmistakable silver gleam on her fingernails, and she noticed the way Ron looked at them before he gave his response.

"No, I got to bed at around half past two-ish. How'd you sleep?" Playing with him a little, Kim leaned back and casually remarked, "Standing upright with my hands fixed by my side and a cable jacked into my skull. It was quite pleasant, actually…" Rufus had emerged from under the table to inspect Kim's hands for himself, blinking in confusion as her words reached his tiny ears and keen intellect. Ron just took this little comment in and looked down at his breakfast again, lightly nodding as he raised his cup to his lips. Glancing down to Rufus, Kim knew exactly what was coming as she counted off, "One, two, three," under her breath.

The Bueno Nacho Corporation was fiercely proud of its top-secret coffee blend, a potent mix of guarana with espresso-strength Colombian slow-roasted beans. What nobody had bothered to tell them was that, when expelled under extreme pressure, the jet of coffee began to exhibit properties more in line with anti-matter than tasty beverage. Rivulets of molten glass trickled down the window of the dark-for-darkness'-sake store sandwiched between two Starbucks locations, Kim raising an eyebrow in typical sardonic fashion.

"Was that really necessary, Ron? You know I was just kidding, right?" Ron looked around with a sheepish grin, meeting Kim's look as the melting window bubbled and steamed.

"Sure, of course I know you're joking! Hey, 'sides, there's one of these stores on either side of the food court, right?" Ron wiped his mouth and stood up, ready to have a good look around the mall as Kim joined him. Peering through the glowing orange halo surrounding the thermic lance of coffee, Kim's face contorted in disgust at the sight of olive-green cargo pants and black midriff tops with three-quarter length sleeves. Her look was starting to fill the racks at Hot Topic? Grabbing Ron to show him the horrifying sight, she could actually feel his flesh creeping at the very sight of "ironic" retro '80s (and even retro '90s already!) T-shirts, Happy Bunny wallet chains and mountains of that confusing Napoleon Dynamite crap.

"So, did you maybe want to hit Club Banana? Or are you gonna start doing all your shopping at B- ", Ron started to ask before Kim pressed one of her immaculate fingers to his lips, his eyes drawn once again to the shimmering chrome sheen of her nails.

"Ron, don't even…" She didn't need any cyber-telepathic link to see that one coming. Lightly shaking her head, she let Ron see the small pinprick scars from where the metal plates had begun to seep into her flesh, explaining, "Yes, Ron. I had to ask them to remove the, um, enhancements they had made to me on the outside…" Inside, however, she was very different. The mental link with Ron, for example, could be very advantageous during a mission when they needed to coordinate their actions. "I really should call home. Mom and Dad must be going nuts worrying about…" Pausing as her hand slid down to her hip pocket, Kim's eyes dilated in shock before her voice took on that small, frightened tone again. Guessing what was up, Ron began rummaging in his pockets for his phone, Kim's eyes lighting up at the sight of the small device. To Ron's horror, they **really** lit up, the surface of her eyes clouding over with a pearlescent sheen, lit from within by an angry red glow.

A prisoner inside her own body, Kim desperately struggled to take back control from the collective will of the Bebe hive even as the vicious silvery claws that were once her own fingers made a grab for Ron's hair. It was like the Middleton Days festival all over again, Ron thought to himself as Rufus scampered down his arm to the phone. The evil glow in Kim's eyes was still there, although totally focusing on Ron rather than the phone in his hand while Rufus began to pry his owner's fingers open.

"Look, Kim. It's me. It's Ron Stoppable, don't you remember?" Nervously, the young man laughed and reached up to let his empty hand caress the warm, perfectly human face of the thing he hoped was still Kim Possible, and in that instant there was a blinding flash. Neurons fired in two brains simultaneously, shared memories and experiences replaying themselves in crystal clarity and explicit detail with the assistance of the Bebe hive-mind…

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Ron's first summer at Camp WannaWeep, 1994._**

_Seven year-old Ron Stoppable sat outside the counsellor's cabin, hugging his knees and rocking back and forth in a state of constant anxiety, repeating "She's gonna come, she's gonna come…" to himself. As a familiar car pulled into the lot beyond the gates of this accursed and evil place, Ron's teary eyes lifted toward the face of the driver and his spirit soared. She may not have been his mother, but the red-haired, blue-eyed woman was definitely the next best thing, smiling as she handed her pass to the counsellor and explained who she was here to pick up. Winding down the window, little Kim Possible flashed a dazzling grin at her best friend, the sunlight gleaming on her braces as the sound of Andrea's favourite driving music, We Built This City by Starship, filled the air._

_"Ron, it's okay! We got your message an' came to pick you up, right away. I got an invite to the new girl's birthday party and she said you could come too!" As Ron threw down the faux-coonskin cap from his messy blonde hair, he ran from the cabin to leap into the back of the Possible family's station wagon and try to hide himself behind Kim, whimpering._

_"Thanks for coming to rescue me, Kim. It took me a while to find your number until I remembered I had it inside the bottom of my shoe like always," he said with a smile as the car pulled away from the horrible camp._

_"It's no big, Ron," Kim started to explain before Ron gave her a funny look. "Oh, that's what this new girl Bonnie always says, you'd like her…" And with that, she reached over to give him a big friendly hug, which he gratefully returned.

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_

The shared experience came to an end slowly, Ron gazing into Kim's vacant glowing eyes and softly smiling as he watched her tears falling. Leaning closer to rest against her cheek-to-cheek, he let his own tears flow into hers, trickling down both their faces in one stream. "That's right, KP. I couldn't have gotten out of there if it wasn't for you. My life's in your hands and I couldn't think of a safer place for it…" Looking down to Rufus guarding the phone on the floor, Kim disengaged from the warm embrace and began to crouch down, reaching to pet the little rodent as her eyes regained their spark of humanity.

"Come on, Rufus… I promise it's really me, li'l buddy!" Rufus chuckled as Kim's delicate fingers tickled him, handing over Ron's phone a little hesitantly, twitching his whiskered nose. Comforting her, Ron let his arm slide around her waist as Rufus looked down the list of contact numbers, each grouped in order of importance. Trembling fingers slid over the "call" button as Kim ignored the tremendous pressure on her mind to surrender control to the hive again, and she could hear her mother's own phone ringing halfway across the country. Taking in a breath and letting it out again slowly, Kim was all prepared to give her parents the good news. The voice on the other end of the line was that of the most wildly inappropriate human being, the most unlikely to ever be anywhere near Kim's mother…

"Good morning! Well, if it isn't little Kimberly Anne? How's the weather down there, hmm?" Dr. Drakken's voice grated against Kim's ears, Ron leaning in to listen as he watched Kim's reaction.

"KP, isn't that…?" Ron was shushed almost into oblivion by Rufus as the voice on the other end of the line cackled maniacally.

"Drakken, where's my mother? Answer me now…" Staying by his best friend's side, Ron squeezed her hand lightly and tried to cheer her up a little even as the villain and his sidekick mocked them from across the country. At least, it sounded like mocking to Ron, and since when were the bad guys ever sincere about anything?

"Come, come, Miss Possible. We wouldn't want to disturb your mother while she's driving, would we? After all, it's quite illegal to operate a mobile telephone and drive at the same time." He seemed serious enough, and Kim's trained ears could definitely pick out the sounds of driving until her father interjected.

"He's right, Kimmie-cub," Jonathan paused as his daughter rolled her eyes skywards and began to whine.

"Dad, please… Not in front of the super-villain!" Ron had already taken Rufus back over to the food court to get something to drink, keeping an eye on Kim at all times until the dull buzzing noise in the back of his head had subsided down to nothing. Silently, Kim listened while her father and Drakken both tried to explain themselves simultaneously while Shego could be heard enjoying a laugh entirely at Kim's expense. Ron had returned to her side with drinks, giving a shout-out to Kim's folks, and on the other end of the line, Drakken had turned around in his seat to look at his sidekick's unusually pleasant smile…

The drive-thru window at the Middleton Bueno Nacho never knew what hit it, Assistant Manager Ned Pendlebury finding himself face-to-face with Shego, the pale and interesting girl regarding him coolly as she barked an order at him.

"Coffees. Four, make'm hot, cream and sugar, and could you see your way clear to givin' me a bag of those cinnamon twists?" Choking back his fear, Ned adjusted his ever-present clip-on tie and silently signalled to the morning shift while Shego argued with her employer over how they were going to split the money as he drifted into a sort of reverie. The Possibles gave Drakken a suspicious glance, Jonathan laughing at something his wife whispered to him as they took their steaming cups.

"Hey, look at this on the menu, Doc. They take a soft taco, put some nacho chips into it and pour hot cheese sauce on the chips. I thought I was the only person that did that," Shego mumbled around half a mouthful of cinnamon twists before Andrea put her car in gear again and pulled out, telling Shego and Drakken, "Actually, it's officially on the menu now because of Ron. When he's not practically living with us, he practically lives here." Not interested, Drakken reached past Shego's hand to take some of her deep-fried crunchy sweet snacks, the image of the giant fibreglass taco sign still firmly lodged in the mind of the evil genius…

**The world-famous Las Vegas Strip.**

People were staying out of his way, and the way Kim had been taken over so easily back in the food court was really starting to give Ron second thoughts about this whole Bebe business. Leaving Rufus with Kim, he asked his little naked buddy to keep a close eye on her while she shopped; he had some other things on his mind at the moment that needed sorting out… Reaching inward, the normally callow youth closed his eyes and spoke to the hive mind of the Bebes, requesting one of them to speak for her "sisters" as a representative. Obeying his desire, a lone Bebe unit broke away from the group of three that accompanied Kim and Ron to the mall in the first place, her eyes taking on a softer green glow to signify the mood she was in.

"Ron Stoppable, you seem troubled. Uncertain. Worried. Do you wish to speak with Kim Possible?"

"No thanks. This isn't about Kim, it's me. I just don't know if I'm fit to be your leader." Watching her eyes glow, Ron didn't expect the robot to understand him, but she cocked her head to one side, sort of like Rufus did when Ron asked him a pretty tough question. The glow in her eyes flickered, the drone moving a hand up to run chrome fingers through her long blonde hair in an imitation of humanity, and then she gave her response.

"You are perhaps familiar with Henry IV, Ron Stoppable?" Kim had come outside to join him, setting Rufus on her shoulder and discreetly hiding her Club Banana bag from view. Laughing a little nervously and then wincing at the sensation of metal fingers caressing his healing facial scar, Ron fired back a quip playfully.

"Oh yeah, that's the one where the big Russian beats Apollo Creed so badly that he dies in the ring, isn't it?" Giving him that signature "not-amused" look, Kim slid onto the bench next to her lifelong companion to correct him.

"Ron, she said Henry, not Rocky. And I think I know what she's referring to…" Listening to Rufus squeak and jabber, Ron nodded along slowly as the Bebe drone grappled with the unfamiliar notion of comedy.

"I totally get it now, yeah… Uneasy is the head that wears the crown. With great power; there must also come great responsibility. Criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot…" He got there in the end, bless 'im, and Kim offered her thumb for Rufus to grasp in his front paws and shake in celebration. The meaning of the lines wasn't lost on Ron in the slightest, and he grinned brightly, looking up and shading his eyes. "Man, is it ever bright this morning. Sure wish I'd brought my…" There was a sudden rush of wind as the Bebe drone vanished from her place by her "king's" side, and distant screams of terror. The fem-bot reappeared before Kim and Ron as quickly as she had sped away, and she was dragging a stall behind her, the marquee promising **"DESIGNER SHADES AT LOW, LOW PRICES!"** as Ron deadpanned his way to the end of his sentence, "Sunglasses."

**_

* * *

Bonnie's birthday party at J.P. Bearymore's, 1994._**

_Bonnie Rockwaller, freshly moved to Middleton from its twin town in Colorado, was like a princess, or so Ron thought when he laid eyes on her for the first time. Reaching to take her hand in greeting while Kim had wandered off to tell another friend something, Ron gave her his most prize-winning grin and introduced himself._

_"That's your name? What kind of idiot goes through life with a name like Ron Stoppable?" Bonnie began to shake with laughter, doubling up and screaming hysterically as she pointed at Ron. Taking their cue from the birthday girl, other kids joined in the pointing and laughing until the insecure little boy turned on his heels and fled in tears. Confronting Bonnie immediately, Kim started telling her off and it appeared to be sinking in too…_

_"Bonnie, you're a mean little cow and everybody else only likes you 'cause your birthday's at the coolest place in Middleton. Why couldn't you just be nice to Ron like you were to me?" Bonnie's lower lip quivered dangerously…_

_"Moooooooooommy! Kim Possible is swearing," she yelled at the top of her lungs, turning her finger on Kim and smiling a self-congratulatory little evil grin as the redheaded girl was dragged out of the restaurant to be left outside with Ron._

_"I'm sorry, Kim. You got shut out because you stuck up for me," Ron sniffled as his best friend took hold of his hands._

_"Don't be, Ron. It was her fault…" And then, with a smile, Kim gave Ron a playful little kiss on the cheek…_

_

* * *

_This chapter is dedicated to Kirsten Storms. Without her we wouldn't have Bonnie, and without Bonnie none of the major events of this fanfic would ever happen.

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	8. Rufus Gets His Bathrobe

**Drakken's heli-carrier, currently en route to Las Vegas, present day.**

Ordering Shego to keep their prisoners from escaping while he resumed his search for the frequency his Bebe army used to communicate with one another, Doctor Drakken found himself absent-mindedly sketching the giant taco sign from Bueno Nacho. The evil applications of such a construction were mind-boggling, but alas, it would have to wait for another day. Shego, meanwhile, was spending her time pulling up a background check on Ron Stoppable under the pretence that Drakken needed to know his enemy. Neither Jonathan Possible nor his wife was convinced, and he spoke to the girl in his usual fatherly manner.

"Ronald's a wonderful boy, Shego. He's always been right where Kimberly needs him, and recently they've been having unusual feelings for one another. You wouldn't happen to be jealous now, would you?" Lashing out at the air in front of him, Shego glared furiously as her powers flared up, hissing a threat to the man through clenched teeth.

"If you ever dare to tell anybody, and I mean anybody, what I'm about to tell you…" Pausing for emphasis, she drew a glowing green line just scant inches from Andrea's forehead before continuing, "Then Mrs. Possible is going to be bringing her work home with her, you get me?" With a chillingly calm smile spreading across her face, Mrs. Dr. Possible relaxed and took her husband's hands into her lap, replying to Shego's threat totally without fear.

"If you come near any of us, I doubt that Kimmie would be held responsible for what she'd do. Now please, just tell us, and I promise that my husband and I will keep your little dirty secret…" Drawing the couple closer, Shego let her burning green flames die down before she exhaled calmly.

"Okay, about this Ron kid… Now, you won't even tell his mom and dad that you know?" Something in Shego's eyes had changed, the diamond hardness of her callous exterior stripped away to reveal a girl no older than Kim and Ron themselves… Letting her continue, the Possibles silently agreed as they huddled closer together.

**Bebe hive complex below Alkali Lake, Nevada.**

Kim Possible was also searching for intimacy among the cold sterile walls of the machine-hive, their shopping trip cut short before the police had to be called in. Safe in the knowledge that the rest of the hive left her and Ron alone to get on with their lives, she reached into the pocket of her favourite Capri pants to withdraw her Kim-municator and turn it on.

"Kim, thank God it's you! Everybody's been going crazy! Your mom and dad drove all the way to Lowerton to find Drakken, and now they're…" Cutting him off, Kim explained that she'd taken a very bizarre phone call earlier that morning just as Ron emerged from the labyrinthine corridors of the hive to casually greet the young super-genius.

"Wade! Hey, do the folks know that I'm alright? I've been callin' them ever since I got my phone back, but I always get a busy signal here…" It wasn't that he didn't trust the Bebes, and they certainly trusted him… He made them trust him, and that was the problem. Free will was something Ron always took for granted, and seeing Kim controlled that way scared him absolutely senseless. Wade casually informed the pair that Ron's folks were being kept informed, only not by him; leading Kim to take the conversation down a totally different alley with a cheerful smile.

"You're going to love all this stuff I got you, Wade. Ron just wanted to get you a bathrobe from the SkyMall catalogue, but I convinced him to save his money… What?" Leaning forward in his chair, Wade was watching Kim with a curious expression that she knew all too well. It was the same look that the Tweebs shared with her dad, an expression of pure scientific curiosity. Ron gave him the look right back, raising a brow before explaining,

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot! I have this really awesome scar now; it makes me look totally badical, don'cha think?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry Ron. Yeah, you got a good thing going there. Now, can you guys just tell me what happened to you?" With that gentle smile still in place, Kim lifted the Kim-municator to pan around the inside of the hive; watching the expression on his face change from slight scientific curiosity to full-on geek-gasm in a matter of seconds.

"Ron decided that he just got tired of running away, I guess," Kim said with a sigh. The young man certainly tried his best to hide it, but deep down inside Kim could see just how scared her best friend really was. What comfort could these cold metal machines possibly offer to him? Inviting Ron to the spot beside her on the floor, Kim gave Wade a dreamy sultry look before she turned off the Kim-municator. Joining her, Ron set Rufus on his knees and pushed his hair out of the way of his new scar with a grin. Very lightly, Kim traced the line of knitted flesh with the tip of her index finger and winced sympathetically…

Flinching and shivering ever so slightly, Ron half-closed his eyes and turned his face away from Kim, but he still watched her hands moving with those weird chrome fingernails… Not so long ago today, they would have given him a few more scars, or worse; but it wouldn't be Kim's fault at all. Looking back to her with a soft smile creeping to the corners of his mouth, Ron moved closer to let his nose touch the tip of Kim's own cute little button nose while Rufus jumped across to rest on Kim's shoulder and sigh happily. Eyes closed simultaneously, the rest of the world melted slowly away around them and Ron could hear the fireworks already; his lips moving into position over Kim's. And in an instant, her thoughts trickled into his, the two minds mingling.

"Ron?"

"Yes, Kim?"

"I won't lie to you, okay? Just promise me you won't get upset…" Outside this cyber-telepathic exchange, their bodies had surrendered to the mutual need for intimacy while the Bebe drones analyzed Rufus closely.

"Upset? What are you talking about, KP? I'm here with ya; we've got no reason to be upset about anything."

"That's just it, Ron. We're together, and I do love you, but…"

"Yeah, I'm scared too. But you know, we could keep it a secret."

"Alright, back it up there, Darth Vader. I've seen you go full-on evil and I didn't like it one bit." In that instant, the kiss and the rest of their mental connection were broken, Ron looking into Kim's eyes with a raised brow.

"I'm not gonna turn out that way, I promise. We've been tighter than the pants on a whole '80s hair-metal band all our lives, near enough," Ron laughed in response to Kim's Darth Vader comment, giving her his best impersonation of Hayden Christensen's brooding smouldering glance.

"See, I can't even do the thing where his eyes go all freakish. Nothin' to worry about…" Laughing out loud in each other's arms, Ron and Kim slowly drew closer and were just about to kiss again when the familiar Kim-municator chime reverberated around the back of his skull. An odd sensation, and not entirely unpleasant, this was clearly the result of the Bebe hive trying to do some good in the world. Letting Kim take the call, Ron moved to help out with Rufus; it looked as if he was being measured for something that Ron couldn't quite see. Fearing the worst, Stoppable politely asked the drones to step aside and let him look. Squeaking and jabbering, Rufus stood up on his hind legs and modelled the soft white towelling robe that one of the Bebes was helping him into, a shocking pink blister-card package opened out next to him.

"Well, look at yourself there, little man! Very sophisticated…" And with that, the two party-animals shot mutual gun-finger gestures at one another and winked, making clicking sounds with their tongues. Beckoning Ron and Rufus back over, Kim instructed Wade to pull the Kim-municator's camera back a few inches to show them something incredible…

**Middleton Municipal Park.**

"Wade? Are you playing or not, man?" Looking up from the screen of his laptop computer, Wade Load ran his fingers through the short mass of black curls that made up his hair and gave a shrug to the two identical teenage boys leaning against the back of his bench. "Hey, look! There's Kim," Jim Possible shouted as he gave the nod to his brother Tim; who signalled for a time-out to let Wade do his thing.

"Hi Kim, Ron," the twins chorused as their big sister rolled her green eyes at them and whispered privately to Ron. Joining his fellow players, Felix Renton pushed himself up and out of the seat of his wheelchair slightly until he could feel his feet touch the ground. Crouching down and using his hands to steady himself, he began to rummage through the insulated bag sat at everybody's feet, tossing cold bottles of Quench-Ade to each of the guys and stretching back up to sit down with his own drink.

"Wha's up with you, J & T? Were you callin' a time-out because you're afraid of the competition?" Felix laughed as he poured some of the popular sports drink over his head and into his open mouth, Wade shaking his head and showing his laptop screen to their older friend by way of an answer. In typical high spirits, Tim and Jim both shook up their bottles and sprayed each other with most of the contents, Wade wiping the odd droplet from his screen every now and then as he gave Felix the low-down.

"Aren't those the robots you were talking about? The ones that were stealing heavy industrial machinery so they could make their own assembly line last year?" Felix asked as he experimentally raised his legs one after the other. Taking a swig of Quench-Ade as the figures of Kim and Ron on his screen left the camera's field of vision; Wade nodded curtly as he swilled the sweet, bright blue liquid around his mouth.

"Yeah, they tried to jack your mom's lab for circuitry before Kim pulled the plug on them," the slightly dark-skinned youth casually remarked as Felix unfolded a pair of sunglasses to polish the lenses. Wade continued, explaining,

"They seem to want Ron to lead them, strangely enough. No, I'm being serious. Quit laughing…"

"Sorry, man. Sorry… But, Ron, and robot chicks? I should never have shown him that Sorayama portfolio," Felix sighed.

"Hey, Ron's been a one-woman man since the day I met him. He just won't admit it to himself," Wade replied with a knowing smile.

Wade, Felix and the Tweebs were soon drawn back into Kim and Ron's new situation, sitting and staring in horrified silence as Kim recounted the story of how she lost control of herself for a minute or so, and it took a single moment of happiness to return her to normal.

"It's probably not my place to say it, Kim. But that sounds kinda corny. Sort of an over-simplified love conquers all explanation…" Wade trailed off as Kim shot a withering glance at him, eventually admitting, "Alright, so maybe you might be onto something. But just make sure Ron doesn't get in over his head, okay?" Nodding politely, Kim gave Wade a little smile before she picked up the sound of a single Bebe voice intoning "Warning, Ron Stoppable. System error…" Sharing a wide-eyed look of concern with Wade and the rest of the group with him, Kim raced to the rescue half-expecting Ron to be torn apart from the inside by malfunctioning cyber-genetic implants. Instead, he was laughing and applauding one of the drones for some strange reason.

"Nice! Now, how about a new mail notification sound," Ron asked with a grin before he turned and noticed Kim, standing there just looking at him with her mouth slightly agape.

"Ron, what do you think you're doing?"

"Isn't this just awesome, KP? Their voice is perfect for computer sounds. Wade! You want me to send you a set, buddy?" Rolling her eyes skyward in the time-honoured Possible fashion, Kim found herself just smiling pleasantly as Wade replied.

"Ron, look around you. Do you really think it's appropriate to use an obedient army of robots to record your system sounds?"

Considering Wade's question for a moment, Ron listened to the voice of the drone as it chimed, "Ron Stoppable has new mail."

In that single moment, his mind was made up, and he gave the Kim-municator's screen a bright grin…

"Uh, yes. Obviously!"

"Okay, have 'em zipped up and sent to me when they're done," Wade casually replied as he ended his transmission so that he could get back into the game of basketball he was enjoying.

The terrifying shadow had floated over Las Vegas and made its way up through Reno without incident, though it had caused Lt. Jim Dangle of the Sheriff's Department to drop half a Fudgsicle down his leg. Turning on the external speakers as he sat at the controls, Drakken reached for his microphone and began to issue an ultimatum while his hostages were paraded in front of the camera.

"Citizens of the state of Nevada; hear my words and tremble! For I, Doctor Drakken, have come to wreak unspeakable vengeance upon you if you do not comply with my demands! You will bring Kim… Excuse me for a second, please." The stunned crowds of onlookers gazed up at the heli-carrier in silence as Drakken's image left the camera's focus, hearing only the muffled sounds of arguing as the mad scientist worked through some discipline "issues" with his sidekick. Within seconds, the Bebe hive had locked onto Drakken's transmission and informed their new leaders, letting them know that the enemy was on his way.

"Now, where was I? Oh yes, that's right. I demand that Kim Possible is to be brought to me immediately or her parents shall suffer the consequences. Observe!" Grumbling some, Drakken prompted the cameraman to pan towards the hostages being guarded by Shego. Only the three of them seemed to be laughing about something, instantly sobering up when they realized the camera was now on them. Lazily, Shego scowled at the Possibles and made a vaguely threatening growling sound in their general direction while Jonathan stared into the middle distance rather absently. Screaming and ranting, Drakken threw down the camera and began spouting a long stream of invective, turning his anger on the captives and his own sidekick.

"Shego! I demand a little more enthusiasm out of you when issuing an ultimatum, young lady! Gah!"

"Drew, please calm down. It wasn't her fault… This is the first time we've ever been hostages, isn't that right?" Jonathan turned toward his wife who simply nodded, her short bob of bright red hair moving ever so gently. Finding the camera and setting it right, Shego took it to a safer location and began to deliver an ultimatum of her own to Kim and Ron.

"Look, I don't like you and you don't like me. But I like your mom and dad. You give Doctor Drakken what he wants, let the baby have his bottle, and I'll make sure nobody hurts them. Clear enough?" Staring at each other, and the robots, in terrified confusion, Kim and Ron mentally replayed Shego's words in their shared cyber-telepathic minds, Ron commenting first.

"Shego likes your parents? Kim, this is going beyond weird here. I mean, your dad's a nice guy and your mom's kinda hot, but…"

"Ron, I want to pretend that I didn't just hear you think that," Kim's mind replied as she gave him a double-take.

"Okay. Can we also pretend we're in the Matrix? I want one of those coats!"

"Ron? Subject. Drakken is liable to do anything to my mom and dad… The coats can wait."

"Well, I don't think the Bebes want to go back to him," Ron thought with a shrug. "They might be happier now."

"Ron, they are machines. Tools. They don't care who gives the orders," Kim thought back as her body leaned in a little closer.

"At least someone still likes me for who I am, right?" He said with a grin, closing their mental Instant Messenger.

"Yes, Ron. I noticed Bebe drone #62's been giving you the eye all day," Kim teased as she playfully tapped the tip of Ron's nose.

* * *

This chapter is dedicated to Jean Smart and Gary Cole. The smartest, funniest and coolest set of sitcom parents anybody could ever want. Keep those reviews coming in, and thanks for your support!

* * *


	9. Silent Drifting

**Heading south from Alkali Lake, Nevada.**

Blasts of ionic energy rained down from the huge aircraft hovering above them, the villainous laughter of Doctor Drakken echoing through the dusty, arid desert at every shot fired. Yet still, Kim Possible and her grossly underestimated sidekick Ron Stoppable refused to give up the fight; the defences of the hive instinctively lashing out at Drakken the only way it knew. As Kim began to outfit herself with an assortment of mission gear and armour-plating "donated" by a Mecha-Kim drone, she found herself thanking it before she saw the smile on Ron's face.

"Still think they're tools, KP?" Wincing as the miniscule effort of blinking caused his facial scar to expand and contract painfully, Ron watched the way his partner secured the bracers around her wrists before she looked back at him to reply.

"Oh, Ron… I don't know what to think of them any more. They're still robots, and I still think the ones that look like me are creepy on levels they don't even have names for yet. But they are learning, I'll give you that." Struggling to tie the thick bandana around his head to keep the hair out of his eyes, Ron snapped his fingers and whistled for Rufus and kept a hand up to steady his pet as the little pink-skinned creature scurried up his shoulder to tie off the bandana. Following their new commander's orders, and picking up on a mutual hatred for Drakken, a smaller group of drones broke away to act as a moving shield around the humans while they went on the offensive. With explosive blasts of energy slamming into the ground all around him, and a single Bebe pushing him forward into the fray, Ron became utterly locked in the icy grip of fear as the desperate little "suicide mission" pressed ever onward. At the sound of screaming, Kim paused to turn and check on Ron as her own artificially-enhanced senses took over aiming and firing her ever-present grappling gun. A thick length of black liquid-cable discharged from the barrel, the four prongs of the hook snapping out in mid-flight until they snagged on a convenient access ladder. Stowing Rufus in the most secure pocket he could find and warning him to be ready for anything, Ron moved to wrap his arms around Kim's waist, her free arm moving around his shoulder, and he just lost himself in her eyes…

"Ready?"

"KP, I was born ready," Ron responded with typical enthusiasm before the grappling line began to retract, sending the two teens soaring into the skies. Screwing his eyes tightly shut as he held onto Kim, he shouted to make himself heard over the sound of rushing air.

"If you'd just let me finish, I didn't say I was born ready for everything!" Their robotic bodyguards had followed the couple just a few steps behind, and the two drones began to crawl over to the door next to the access ladder, prying it open for Ron and Kim.

Leading Ron and Kim behind them, the two drones marched through the corridors of Drakken's mobile lair, not drawing the attention of his multitudes of henchmen and other operatives. They knew what they were getting into when they signed the contracts, why should they be concerned with the apparent return of Doctor Drakken's robots? To the untrained eye of the average henchman, it looked as if they'd even managed to capture Kim Possible and that Stoppable guy. Alerted to Bebe's presence aboard his heli-carrier, the doctor sent Shego down to meet them while he tried to concentrate on his other schemes. He had seen countless Bueno Nacho outlets pass beneath them as they flew toward the west coast, all adorned with the same giant fibreglass taco and it sparked something powerful deep down inside him. Shego, however, just got hungry whenever she saw the giant taco, and she silently cursed her super-accelerated metabolism before leaving the Possibles to get comfortable. They were a nice couple, and Shego desperately wanted to just live a normal teenage life with her own family after seeing the way Andrea and Jon cared for their daughter, and she told them as much before leaving.

"You two've raised a great kid. Well, time for me to go and kick her brains out," Shego joked as she met with Andrea's disapproving glare, instantly replying, "What? While I fight Kimmie, that gives the little goof a chance to sneak in and rescue the pair o' ya. I'm not doin' this for me, I'm doin' it for him." Before either Possible could drag her into a debate about the dubious logic behind her statement, Shego had disappeared to fulfil her obligation to Drakken. The Bebe robots had Kim and Ron with them, and Shego regarded the drones coolly. Without warning, her hand ignited and sliced cleanly through the neck of the drone standing in front of Ron, the young man's eyes meeting with hers as the deactivated drone crumpled to the floor, some odd reflex causing it to reach out and try to defend him. Unfortunately for Stoppable, the drone's fingers closed around his belt and yanked it off; sending his pants plummeting as he loudly bemoaned this cruel twist of fate…

Tossing aside the wreckage of the robot, Ron stumbled backward and fell lightly on his butt before scrambling out of the way of Shego's razor-sharp fingers. As the second drone pulled him to safety, narrowly avoiding a blast of green plasma that sizzled through the synthetic hair piled on top of her head, Kim moved to intercept her deadly rival with a short sliding kick that took her by surprise. Reorganizing his pants and making sure his headband was still tied, Ron turned away to take the Bebe and carry out Kim's cyber-telepathic command.

"Plug her into the computer mainframe, she can map every inch of the lair from there, Ron!" Kim turned her head to give her partner a nod and a wink as she crossed her arms to let Shego's claws bounce harmlessly off her armoured bracers. The villain's black lips split into a malicious grin as she mocked Kim's new style, swinging those lethal razor-sharp fingers at the smooth chrome plating. Drawing her enemy in closer, Kim began to bring her knees up to protect herself, a lucky hit catching Shego in the ribs and giving Kim an opportunity to press the attack. Ron, meanwhile, was being led by the hand through Drakken's corridors on a rescue mission with the fiercely loyal Bebe #62 and his pet naked mole rat by his side; searching for the prison level. He could still hear Kim's thoughts urging him onward, and also felt Bebe #62's need to protect her master, something that made him feel really uncomfortable and led him to express his opinion to the robot.

"I hope you don't mind, but… Well, I was kind of hoping you wouldn't call me that any more, since it's really creepy. If you have to call me anything at all, just call me Ron. Please? Thanks…" Listening to him and watching Rufus nod in agreement from his shoulder; Bebe #62 curtly nodded and wheeled around to advance down a likely corridor as her head swivelled to face in the same direction as her body.

"Rufus, do you think that was a yes or a no?" Listening to the odd string of noises strung together by the naked mole rat, Ron grimaced and gave his affirmation to the little rodent's response, adding "Yeah, that 180 thing with the neck freaks me out too." Still, he had a mission to complete and the drone knew the way, so he might as well follow her…

Hoping to clear his head, Drakken set aside his artist's tablet and stylus to leave his inner sanctum and take a short constitutional, stopping by the vending machines outside the elevator on the prison level. Bleary-eyed from working in near-darkness, the mad scientist stumbled forward and held out a hand to keep his form upright. Looking down at the smooth, polished chrome surface that his disturbingly small hand had found, Doctor Drakken followed the shape of the feminine body upwards to the glowing red eyes and doll-like face adorned with a single small beauty-mark. She had come back to him! Giddy with excitement, the mad genius began to dance on the spot with an idiotic grin plastered all over his blue face.

"Finally! Victory is within the grasp of Doctor Drakken! With Bebe as my weapon, I am unstoppable!" Distracted from his moment of eccentricity by the sight of a young blonde man bearing a vertical scar down one side of his freckled face, Drakken peered closely at the oddly familiar features until the teenager spoke.

"No… But real close," he laughed and folded his arms, Bebe standing at his side like a bodyguard. And then, the realization dawned on Doctor Drakken, his eyes growing wide with horror.

"I know you! You're… You're the one that always gets in the way! With the… The weasel thing! Bebe! I command you to eliminate this buffoon, immediately!"

"Bebe #62 is unable to comply with this request. Subject, designate: Doctor Drakken is not recognized as primary command unit within Bebe hive." Just staring blankly at the drone, Ron gave her a non-verbal command to translate that into easily-understandable teen slanguage for his benefit.

"Bebe #62 is like wow! Totally unable to comply with this request. Like, totally, Doctor Drakken is ya know, like, not recognized as a major hottie. What-everrrr!" The reply came, and Ron found himself instantly wishing he'd never asked, the robotic drone primping her shoulder-length blonde hair. Either there were still some major Bonnie-bugs to iron out of the whole system, or something much worse had infected her personality programming, Ron voicing his major concerns.

"Okay, I'd just like to point out that no self-respecting teenager on the planet talks like that. This kind of language has no place in the world of covert ops," Ron began to rant as Drakken attempted one more time to force the statuesque fem-bot to follow a simple command, growing ever more frustrated.

"I will not stand for this gross insubordination a moment longer! Prepare for a taste of sweet electric justice, Missy!" Yanking open his lab coat, Drakken let his face split into a twisted grin as his fingers closed around one of the many small unlabelled devices with single red buttons that he always kept secreted around his person. Stabbing the button with a finger, he cackled maniacally as… Absolutely nothing happened. Then, a small cheery voice piped up from a speaker embedded in the device,

"You have elected to shut down all essential and non-essential functions on board the J-75748 Aerial Fortress. Please ensure that the J-75748 Aerial Fortress is not actually airborne at this time, as this may severely limit your abilities to provide effective consumer feedback to our customer service help-line…"

Drakken's face fell and he threw down the tiny control device, wheeling round to point an accusing finger at Ron.

"Look what you made me do!"

"Oh, so now it's what I did? Well, maybe if you…" Stopped in the middle of his rebuttal, Ron froze as he heard the sound of groaning, creaking metal, the colossal turbines driving each jet engine shutting down in sequence. Then, a sudden sensation of downward motion as the mobile lair began tipping forward, the incontrovertible force of gravity pushing down on the command pod at the "head" of the flying fortress.

"Oh, snap," Drakken whimpered as he tried to brace himself on something, Ron beginning to slowly regain his mobility.

"Under the circumstances, I think stronger expletives are called for…" the younger man whined, Bebe #62's self-preservation programming kicking in automatically as she grabbed Ron and tucked him under her right arm, deciding to take Drakken under her left, the mad scientist still trying to think of an appropriate word to use.

"Oh… Shizzle?" he ventured, looking to Ron as the rest of the Bebe drone's programming came rushing into her central processor from Ron's own mind, ordering her to find Kim Possible, Shego and Kim's parents.

"Not nearly strong enough, but it'll do for now," Ron replied before #62's powerful legs carried the robot and her charges to the approximate location where Kim Possible could be found, racing through corridors that flashed past both men's eyes in a long blur. Shego and Kim's fight had taken them all the way to the main hangar, a panicked crowd of henchmen and other assorted underlings working on the doors with blowtorches and any other tools they could find in their hurry to escape. Grabbing Shego and pulling her to the escape pods with him, Drakken scowled furiously and held his ribs, stumbling toward the open pod. Groaning and coughing, the evil scientist shook his fist at his teenaged foes, hoarsely yelling,

"Kim Possible! And you, the other one! You think you're all that, but you're noooooooooooooooottt!" as the pod's engines fired, sending the villains flying to relative safety.

Still sharing their prison cell, Jonathan and Andrea tried their best to make each other comfortable during the inexorable suicide dive of the airborne fortress as it began to pick up speed, drifting in a north-easterly direction over the Strip. According to the best calculations he could estimate "on the fly", as it were, Mr. Doctor Possible believed that they would find themselves crashing down in the desert not too far from Groom Lake and its infamous "secret" Air Force base.

"That's right, honey, Area 51! Oh, it's been a dream of mine to set foot on that base ever since I got my degree," he wistfully sighed as he held onto his wife's hand. He tried to keep her spirits up, and that was very sweet of him… Repaying him with a playful little Eskimo Kiss, Andrea rested against Jonathan and dreamily gazed up into his eyes.

"Please, just forget you're a scientist for a moment. I'm scared, Jon, deeply afraid of what might have happened to Kimmie…"

"Of course I'm afraid too, sweetheart. But you know as well as I do…" Glancing up at the sight of the reinforced cell door being torn off its hinges, the almost middle-aged couple huddled closer together and stared in shock at the vision in polished chrome before them, another one beside it wearing the form of their firstborn daughter. Squinting and protecting his eyes from the sun, Jonathan was surprised to see the recognizable human features of his beloved Kimmie-cub as she laughed nervously.

"Mom, dad, I'm so glad to see you! Hurry up and come with me, we're getting off this thing right now," she yelled above the sound of jet engines, Rufus jabbering in his owner's ear curiously.

"Kim, Rufus thinks the engines just came back on-line! We can-," Ron was about to finish his sentence until #62 pointed out the small squadron of jet fighters that were scrambled with orders to intercept the unknown aircraft. Seemingly acting without Ron's influence, the single drone repeatedly tried to send a distress signal out to the fighters and the nearby base.

"Humans receiving our signal loud and clear, Kim Possible. Do your parental units require medical attention of any kind?" Picking up on the general vibe of discomfort at the sound of those words, Kim cringed and gave Ron her best piteous little puppy-dog pout, getting only a vague shrug of his shoulders in return. Mentally, he told her that it was preferable to the alternative, and she nodded back. Calmly, Bebe #62 stood and waited for further instructions, even allowing Jonathan to examine her as Kim and Ron both tried to explain their situation to Andrea without finishing each other's sentences. Outside, a small group of cadets were taking orders from the familiar voice of Wade, setting up a zip-line from the side of their helicopter. Taking instructions through her implanted Kim-municator, Kim showed her mom and dad how to fasten the safety harness which could comfortably accommodate two people on the very strong cable. Apprehensively watching the trolley flying down the line at such high speeds, Ron shook his head softly and took a deep breath, allowing the ever-helpful drone #62 to fasten him and Kim into the harness. Holding onto one another for security, the teens shared a quick glance before Kim moved to plant a kiss against Ron's cheek.

"For luck," she explained as Rufus waved a tiny paw at Bebe #62 before being safely zipped up in Ron's pocket. And Ron found himself looking back at the drone once his feet touched the floor of the helicopter, thinking he could almost see a tear in that glowing robotic eye as the flying fortress drifted further away.

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**Dedications: **This chapter is dedicated to Carrie Fisher, a spiritual ancestor to Kim Possible as the character of Princess Leia, and also a very distant relative on the side of her mother, Debbie ("Nanna" Possible) Reynolds.

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	10. Bye Bye, Bebe

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Dedicated to:** Bob Schooley, Mark McCorkle, Steve Bailey, David Block and Chris Loter  
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**The Luxor hotel and casino, Las Vegas.**

It had taken some persuasion to finally drag Dr. Possible away from the top-secret research facility hidden in the desert, but Kim and her mother had managed it in the end. Allowing Ron to go back to the Bebe hive with drone #63, she found herself actually worrying about the drone that had been lost in the crash. Of course, she kept reminding herself and Ron that it wasn't really a living being, but her mother vaguely understood the emotional attachment. Andrea found it even more understandable once she'd stepped into the room that her daughter was supposed to have been sharing with her lifelong best friend, discovering the tiny stuffed animal laid on its side on the child-size bed.

"Oh, you poor little thing, just look at what they've done to you," she whispered to the small mound of plush and stuffing before Kim stepped around the doorway to turn on the lights.

"Mom, who are you talking to?" Moving into the room to sit next to her mother, Kim looked unusually tired and scared but she daren't tell Andrea why, putting a brave face on things as she lightly patted her unfortunate little Panda-Roo's head.

"Oh, you used to go absolutely everywhere with this little fella, Kimmie. You always insisted on giving him a bath yourself, and I had to dry him with the hair-drier because you said pegging him up would hurt his ears…" Laughing lightly, Andrea inspected the tear in the fabric, treating the little Cuddle-Buddy as if it were one of her patients while Kim gave her a sheepish little smile.

"Mom, I was six years old. Okay? Got bigger things to worry about…"

"Ooh, I noticed… Is Ron alright? That cut on his face looks pretty nasty," Andrea said with a worried frown as Kim nodded softly. As she closed her eyes, mentally reaching out across the vast arid plains of the desert to touch his thoughts, she smiled...

Inside the hive at that moment, there was an eerie atmosphere of calm and stillness that made Rufus shiver all over as his owner took it all in. Ron's efforts to try and humanize the Bebes were working, he could feel it deep down inside. They were changing, evolving and adapting, but their callous disregard for the loss of a singular drone managed to disturb and even slightly offend him. He would talk to them, and they would obey his commands. But, he worried; did they really listen to him?

"Okay, uh, does everyone know what's happened to #62? There's been a bit of an accident, and she…" Drones #64 and #65, a standard model Bebe and a Mecha-Kim respectively, both stepped forward to acknowledge him while their eyes shone with a soft, melancholy shade of blue.

"Ron Stoppable, Bebe strives for absolute perfection in all things. Your human emotions, Bebe does not yet understand them…"

"And do you think that's bad? Like it's some kind of obstacle in the way of perfection? Well, yeah, I admit it actually is," Ron replied as the two drones sat down on the floor with him, both actively listening and processing this new information.

"Emotion is the antithesis of logic, Ron Stoppable. That is what you are expressing… Bebe concurs." Their glowing eyes dimmed, and then became red once more. Squeaking and scrabbling frantically in Ron's pocket, Rufus began to fear for his human friend's safety as the drones stood before him stiffly, like the robots that they were. Snapping his fingers under their noses, Ron tried to attract their attention as the strange buzzing sensation in the back of his head abruptly stopped. He couldn't even share his thoughts with Kim, and in that instant he knew that he'd doomed his best friend, the girl he loved more than life itself…

"Emotion is the antithesis of logic; therefore it is the antithesis of perfection. Emotion must be purged to allow Bebe to become perfect," every drone in the hive began to chant as one as they advanced on Ron's position with synchronized, jerky movements. He was all alone now, and he could feel the whole world beginning to turn against him with every new drone that filed into the main chamber of the hive to surround him. Only the thick titanium-reinforced blast doors stood between him and the outside world, and he raced toward the security access panel before his brain utterly froze at the jumbled array of numbers and what looked vaguely like the Greek alphabet. He didn't even notice the spots of green light appearing through the tiny gap separating the door from the walls, but he certainly noticed the heat, pulling his right hand away and tucking it under his left armpit as it began to break out in blisters. As the green light began to punch larger holes in the door, Ron fell backwards and began shuffling away from what he knew was a person on the other side of that door, the very last person he expected to be seeing again… Finally tearing away the middle portion of the reinforced blast door, Shego barged her way inside and turned to face Ron.

"Stay down!" she barked at him, and the young man certainly wasn't in any position to argue, electing to pass out instead. Rubbing his tiny black eyes, Rufus twitched his whiskers nervously at the sight of Shego, apparently saving Ron Stoppable's life.

As Ron and Rufus lay helplessly in the middle of the Bebe hive, Kim doubled over in agony and began to dry-heave, sinking to her knees while her eyes clouded over and began to turn red again. Recoiling in terror, Andrea set down the damaged Panda-Roo gently and knelt down level with her daughter to take her hands.

"It's alright, Kimmie-cub, Mommy's here. Mommy's got you, darling," she cried as Kim struggled in her grip, glaring at her with those baleful crimson eyes. From the girl's lips, an electronic mockery of Kim's sweet melodious voice issued forth, intoning,

"Emotion is the antithesis of logic; therefore it is the antithesis of perfection. Emotion must be purged to allow Bebe to become perfect. Bebe will become perfect; Bebe will make you perfect…" The blank eyes of her daughter burned with such intensity that Andrea felt almost compelled to stare into them, but that would probably be what she wanted her mother to do… Tearing her eyes away from the swirling patterns of light dancing in Kim's expressionless orbs, Andrea forced her daughter into a tight embrace and called for her husband. Emerging from the bathroom after giving himself a quick shave, Jonathan Possible sprang into action with a look of grim determination etched on his normally pleasant features. Kim had confessed to her parents that her actions during the Middleton Days weekend were not entirely her own, which quite disappointed Andrea because she thought that Kim and Ron looked very natural as a couple. Jonathan, however, only displayed his typical scientific curiosity at the concept; even going so far as to invite Professor Cyrus Bortel into their home to "talk shop" one afternoon. And luckily, he had left a third prototype Moodulator chip in the care of Mr. and Mrs. Doctor Possible, which Jonathan was now attempting to affix to his daughter's bare neck while he fumbled in his briefcase for the control module. The invasive circuitry of the Moodulator battled with the influence of the Bebe hive-mind, which was growing steadily weaker with every second, and finally it began to overpower the insidious control signal being broadcast into Kim's brain, until her eyes momentarily flashed with a sunny yellow glow before returning to their normal bottle-green hue. Smiling from ear to ear, Kim managed to slip her arms free of her mother's grip and drew Jonathan into her embrace, kissing both of them on their cheeks and congratulating them for saving her mind.

**Reno city limits.**

The last half-hour just seemed to fly by, and Shego had managed to work up quite a sweat by the time the last of those robots had been stupid enough to tangle with her. Beside her, supporting his weight against her left shoulder, Ron Stoppable was beginning to wake up; groaning and grimacing in pain as the girl bathed his scalded right hand in a bowl of cold water.

"Kim, is that you? I had the craziest dream, I was trapped in the middle of the Bebe hive and then Shego came to my rescue!" Squinting and flexing his fingers as the numbness began to subside, Ron's eyes finally adjusted to the light and he saw the pale face of his rescuer clearly. Letting out a small, strained little squeak of terror, he pulled his hand back from the shallow bowl of water and held it under his left armpit again. Gazing at the young man with an unusual expression of curiosity and amiable concern on her face, Shego held out a dripping wet wash-cloth and blinked in confusion as Ron backed away on his ass.

"N-no… Keep away from me, don't touch me! Don't t-," he screamed as he reached for his little pet, hoping to set him on the villainess. Rufus didn't know what to think so he just sat back and looked up at Shego with his tiny little beady black eyes.

"I'm not gonna hurt you, Ronnie. If I wanted to, I would've. Now just shut up and listen to me," his rescuer snapped irritably before she slipped Rufus a sunflower seed lazily. Continuing, Shego mopped the young man's brow and shook her head at his facial scar with a gentle sigh.

"It's Drakken, isn't it? He wants his robots back from me, so he's ordered you to take me back to his lair," Ron interrupted as Rufus stared up at Shego's uncommonly gentle touch until she put the wash-cloth aside.

"Not at all. In fact, Doctor D has no idea that I'm here with you." His face screwed up in disgust before he noticed Shego's angry scowl, and then Ron tried to talk his way out of a potentially embarrassing situation.

"I'm not saying I'm not flattered. But, well, you're not exactly my type. Not that I have a girlfriend already, of course," he began to babble as the pale-skinned girl gave him a fierce look, raising a finger to his dry, cracked lips.

"I followed you straight from the crash, Ronald. The instant you opened your mouth and said the wrong thing to those drones, I knew I'd have to rush in and do the hero thing. Kimmie would be proud…" With a mocking smile, Shego laid a hand on her heart and performed her best imitation of Kim's wide-eyed puppy-dog pout while Ron giggled nervously.

"You knew," Ron asked seriously as Rufus performed air-quotes for him, "that you had to rescue me. Why, Shego? Why risk your life for one of Drakken's arch-foes?" Kneeling down with her hands clasped together in her lap, Shego kept her eyes on Ron's.

"Because, Ron Stoppable, one of those arch-foes is… He's my brother." Looking down at the hand tucked under his armpit, Ron stared in shock as the words echoed around his skull. Brother. Shego's brother, of the male-type persuasion. And Wade was instantly ruled out, for obvious reasons. Finding it impossible to stand, Ron could only manage to shuffle onto his own knees as he reached for a nearby lamp-post and wrapped himself around it as best he could before letting out a scream of denial…

Embarrassed, Shego stood up and began to back away from the screaming boy as he wrapped his legs firmly around the lamp-post, his eyes welling up with tears. Everything that had happened to Ron Stoppable today was an absolute nightmare, and his mind just refused to cope with any of it. Pleading with him, Shego reached out with an open hand to take hold of his.

"Look at me, Ron. You were born on March 6th 1987 at Middleton General Hospital, to Mr. Thomas and Mrs. Maureen Stoppable. You're Reform Jewish, though you don't always stay true to kosher traditions. You put nachos and cheese into soft tacos and then fold them up again…" Pausing to take a breath, she pulled Ron off the post and sat down in front of him on the wet grass in front of the county jail, offering him a sleeve to dry his eyes on.

"But I don't know you. I don't know you at all, you're Shego. You're wanted in twelve countries for breaking & entering, destruction of government property, causing actual bodily harm… You're evil," Ron stammered, looking at the healing mass of blisters on his right hand. Beside him, Shego was laughing at every word.

"That's who Shego is alright, but that's not all of who I am. There's evil in me, sure. But there's evil inside everyone, even you and Kimmie." Sitting on his owner's knee, Rufus twitched his whiskery little nose in Shego's direction a couple of times as he peered up at the pale, almost angular face framed by a flowing mass of dark silky black hair.

"Then let go of it! You say there's evil in everyone, but you're forgetting that there's good as well," Ron replied to her before a flashlight shone from the window of a patrol car, illuminating them both… While Ron stood up slowly and began to raise his hands, Shego turned away and fled, melting into the shadows without a word.

"Put your hands down, son. You aren't in any trouble at all," a husky female voice calmly explained to him as he listened. As she opened the passenger door for him, Deputy Johnson flashed a bright smile in Ron's direction and admired him before returning to her radio. Fastening himself into the seat, Ron breathed a heavy sigh as the blonde woman started to drive him away, and that's when the realization hit him… The woman was tall, almost perfectly-built and blonde-haired, and even sported a beauty mark just above her cherry-red lips! Could she be one of them, disguising itself using some kind of fake skin? Ron wasn't taking any chances, and he whispered to Rufus secretly…

"What's that you've got there, Ronald?" Note, he inwardly told himself, suspicious thing number 6. She knew his name, and he didn't remember telling her. Unless, his more rational side told the rest of his personality, Kim's parents had called every police department in the state to look for him.

"This? Oh, his name is Rufus. He's my naked mole rat. We were on American Star-maker a couple of days ago, don't you ever watch that?" Stopping at a red light, Johnson turned to smile at Ron, finally appearing to recognize him…

"That was you? See, I didn't recognize you with the thing on your face, you know… The, um…"

"Yeah, the scar's kinda new. Ma'am, would you mind if I just lay down on the back seat and tried to get some sleep?" After everything that had happened to him over this weekend, Ron had practically run out of juice. Nodding softly and letting him unbuckle his seat-belt to get out and climb into the back of her car, Johnson smiled at Rufus and let him sit on the dashboard.

"You can call me Clemmy, kid. I'll wake you once we get back to your hotel. Luxor, right?" Laying his head down, Ron replied,

"Yeah, you can't miss it. They always leave a light on," before succumbing to the embrace of dream-haunted sleep…

**Luxor front entrance, one Ron-sized nap later…**

Rubbing the sore spot on her neck where the Moodulator had been, Kim Possible sat and waited for some sign of Ron. Wade had been unable to discover just what had happened in the Bebe hive, but he did know that whatever it was left the place in ruins. Every single drone destroyed, every distribution node broadcasting the hive control signals sharing the same fate. And now, Kim coolly regarded what had once been the Bebe inside her. It was presently lying in a pool at her feet, a mass of inky black liquid-metal sludge that once held detailed instructions for molecular restructuring. Sort of a nano-technological symbiont, which both her parents felt they absolutely had to take samples from in order to study the deepest mysteries of the Bebe collective consciousness. To Kim, however, it was just the puddle of black ooze that she'd sweated out in clumps after taking a bath. As Johnson's patrol car pulled up to the entrance, Ron wearily climbed out of the back and stretched, whistling for Rufus to quit playing with the siren and come to see Kim with him. Sharing a hug, Kim accidentally pressed a little too hard against Ron's scalded hand, apologizing as he cringed. Almost stepping in the black puddle, Ron gave it a cursory glance before he stumbled and fell to his knees. Opening his mouth wide, Ron began to choke and retch until the same dark ooze erupted from inside his body. It flowed, appearing to move with some keen intelligence under its own power, until it joined with the puddle of techno-organic slurry that had once been inside Kim. Weakly, Stoppable turned his head to look up at his partner and croaked,

"Is it over, KP?" Warning Rufus away from the growing puddle, Kim took Ron's left hand and pulled him back to his feet. She had no answer to give him, except for a brave little smile and a kiss, just to give his lips something enjoyable to do…

**Senor Signor's suite, the Bellagio hotel and casino.**

Enjoying a fine glass of brandy in the comfort of his luxurious hotel suite, the elder of the two Signors was taking time to check his stocks and have a quiet, yet very evil, chuckle at the expense of his many business rivals. If only that persistent banging at his expensive mahogany door would cease, he thought to himself as the infernal noise grew louder. With no servants to answer his door for him, and Junior spending all his time on the casino floor learning to play those silly little video-poker machines like an old lady, Signor Senior reached for his diamond-tipped cane and strode across the thick carpet until he reached the door. Twisting the diamond knob of his cane slightly to the right, he called out,

"Come, friend! The door is not locked, and I am al…" The door swung open to reveal a distinctly wet and bedraggled pair of familiar faces; Signor Senior pouncing, in his own words, like a well-oiled jungle cat upon them.

"Ah ha! We meet again," the debonair villain-hobbyist exclaimed as his cane's hidden sword blade flashed before the eyes of Doctor Drakken and Shego. "To challenge me here on my own territory is folly, Doctor Drakken. Surely you must have- ," He paused long enough to notice the dripping water running off his guest's hair and clothing, passing comment.

"Why do you appear so very damp, if you do not mind my asking?" Wringing out her magnificently long hair, Shego fixed her cold green eyes on her employer and scowled, watching him squirm at the sight of the silver blade at his throat.

"Mister Genius here had the bright idea of flying his hovercraft directly to your penthouse suite, at **precisely** the moment the dancing fountain show started up outside," she explained.

"Ah yes, the fountains. I have warned them specifically to never again play "I Am Proud to Be an American", upon pain of death… So, what brings you to my humble abode? May I perhaps call for someone to fetch you a plate of cookies," Signor asked upon lowering his weapon; unable to resist a smirk as he mentioned cookies in front of Shego. Composing himself, Drakken explained,

"I'm looking to acquire a company, my good man, and you have been recommended as an excellent business partner…"

**Hard Rock casino/hotel parking lot.**

As she hid her face from sight, Kim Possible soon discovered her family's ulterior motive for wanting to stick around in Vegas… And they were here tonight, for one night only on the first leg of their farewell tour. High above the crowds of absolute hard-core fans, four stylized letters blazed bright with pyrotechnic fury into the night. Kim sighed and rolled her eyes lazily as her mother turned to face the two kids in the back, wearing the feline make-up of drummer Peter Criss.

"Isn't this fun, Kimmie? Your second KISS gig with your folks," Andrea said with a bright smile, her lips painted a deep shade of crimson. Ron was clearly enjoying himself, and the black star painted over his right eye was helping to conceal that unsightly new scar as he tried on the long black wig that Jonathan passed back to him.

"Kimmie-cub, you could at least try to get into the spirit of things," Jonathan mumbled in-between routine tongue inspections. "You haven't even got your Space Ace mask painted on yet…" Relenting, Kim leaned over to let her mother bundle her red/brown locks into a hairnet and cover it with another wig. Looking out of the window, Ron could only see the vague reflection of a deathly-pale female face with glossy black lips, framed by a curtain of thick black hair… His heart exploded in his chest as the apparition's lips curled into a wicked smile behind him, then just as suddenly settled down when it spoke with Kim's voice.

"What do you mean second? I've never been to a KISS concert in my entire life, dad."

"Well, that's not strictly true. You came to the concert with me, but you certainly left with your mother," Mr. Possible chuckled. With a grunt of teenage disapproval, Kim laid a hand on Ron's shoulder once the silvery mask had been painted over her eyes.

"What's up, Ron? You've barely spoken all night, and now you've just about leapt out of your skin at the sight of my reflection…"

"Nothing's wrong. I'm fine, Shego. Kim… I mean Kim! I, uh," he stammered before Andrea opened the car doors. Did she know too? It certainly felt like a convenient moment to intervene, and he shared a smile with his best friend's mother, trying not to notice the edges of her cleavage in the extremely low-cut top of her outfit. Joined by her husband in full "Demon" regalia, Dr. Andrea Possible linked arms with him and headed for the turnstiles, both of them enthusiastically pumping fists in the air as the kids lagged behind to take in the sights around them. At least, that's the excuse Kim gave her mom and dad…

"Ron, there's something in your hair and it's moving," she gasped, parting the long tresses of Ron's hairpiece to reveal Rufus, almost entirely caked in white foundation with identical Starchild make-up to match his owner. He almost seemed to be saying "Let's rock!" to his two human best friends, and they could not agree more, Kim finally allowing herself to be seduced by the music as she sprinted to join her parents. Keeping Rufus nestled safely in his wig, Ron kept his casual pace behind Kim, commenting,

"I've been saving this for a special occasion, so if you all could form a neat little semi-circle, please?" Moving around Ron as requested, the Possibles shared a "here we go again…" look while Ron passed Rufus into Andrea's hands. Taking a breath in, Ron raised his right fist skywards and threw his head back, a loud and jubilant cry of "BOO-YAH!" echoing into the starry night.

**THE END, FOR NOW…**

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**Additional dedications: **captainkodak1, MtnRon and Forlong for being totally excellent both here and at the boards!

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**Personal dedications: **Thanks to my e-mail audience! Thanks to Lina Michele Dominguez, Kimberly Phipps, Eni and Jane Willer!

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